Vin 312 is a small family winery in Ravenswood Chicago, run by wine-maker Warner. The facility is housed in a beautiful, rustic loft that doesn’t look or feel like your average winery. However, upon entry, you find yourself in a quaint tasting room with open views to all the machinery and barrels used to make the wine.

As soon as you enter the winery, it’s quite clear the staff work very hard to make all the wine in-house with grapes sourced from California and Washington State.

For the tasting, I started with an amazing Viognier, a full-bodied white variety originating from Southern France. Next, the “Touche Rose” (made from Malbec and Tempranillo), was fresh, complex and tasted of fresh strawberries.

My favorites were the Teroldego (a grape originally from Northern Italy) and Tannat (a grape from France made popular in Uruguay), with their heavier and spicy aromas. I truly enjoyed sampling these lesser-known varieties and appreciated the uniqueness of their offerings.

This winery offers tastings on the weekend, which can be purchased in-house or from Groupon. Stop on over, you’ll be glad you did!