Several vintners will accompany wines to St. Viator tasting
A small Napa Valley winery, and one of its owners, will be at the center of St. Viator High School's eighth annual Wine Tasting Event and Auction on Feb. 21 at The Meadows Club in Rolling Meadows.
The difference is, this vintner lives in Arlington Heights.
Five years ago Mickey Moore partnered with Ryan Perry of Northern California and Tom Henderson of Schaumburg, to open PerryMoore Winery. At the time Moore lived in California, before moving back to Arlington Heights two years ago.
Members of the San Francisco Wine Association describe PerryMoore as a "leading California boutique winery" and have accepted its labels into its 17-member network of family-owned wineries.
Moore himself will be at the wine tasting event, to provide his insights into his exclusive wines, along with John Benish, another Napa Valley vintner, and owner of Benessere Winery.
Both are considered to be rising stars among California wineries, though typically their varieties are available only at top restaurants or directly from the winery.
In all, there will be 75 wines featured, for all tastes and budgets, organizers say, and with display tables set up in a main tasting room, and an optional vintage room highlighting premier wines.
Another local vendor, Mary Ellen Hogan, proprietor of Urban Harvest, in Arlington Heights, will offer varietals such as Whip Hand Cabernet, Laurent Perrier Brut and Chalk Hill cabernet sauvignon, as well as other boutique and undiscovered wines from Australia.
Having vintners present at the tasting and auction helps take the event to the next level, organizers say.
"We are a small winery, producing only 750 cases each year," Moore explains. "This gives us an opportunity to be more hands-on, and to create not just good wines, but great wines that will leave a lasting memory.
"Our focus is to create small, handcrafted lots of great wines," he adds, "that capture the natural qualities of the vineyards we've chosen, the grape, and all that nature has to offer."
Members of the school's Parents' Club help coordinate the event. All proceeds this year are earmarked for the completion of St. Viator's state-of-the-art science labs.
Tickets to the wine tasting are $75 per person. Call Barbara Sipe at St. Viator High School for details, at (847) 392-4050, ext. 253, or visit: www.saintviator.com.