wine tasting business

Hello Everyone,

Its my first post of many I hope. I am new to the whole wine world. My friend is thinking about starting a wine tasting business in chicago. I offered to help him do some research and quick became overwhelmed how vast the wine industry is. Main goal of tasting is to help educate new enthusiast (like myself) with basic tasting/education. (Types of grapes, types of wine glasses, basic food pairings)

We tried getting in touch with city hall to see what license/permits are required. According to them no temporary indoor/permit is given. You must have an established business to obtain any type of liquor license.

Now I have attended several wine tastings events inside museums / rental halls
(WineRiot, Bottlenotes) and non of those have a storefront in the city. Granted we plan on doing much smaller 50-75 people events in different locations but still how are these major tasting events allowed when according to the city they do not offer temporary permits??

Have you thought to just ask Alyssa at BottleNotes?

Lot of info here. Have you checked it out?
There is something called a Tasting Representative permit. Maybe that applies.

http://www.state.il.us/lcc/default.htm

Thank you for the quick replies. I attend bottlenotes just as a taster before friend had wine tasting discussion. Not sure who Alyssa is
I actually did call the LLC and was told to contact city hall since Chicago has more strict laws then the state does.

Alyssa Rapp is the founder and CEO of BottleNotes. She is quite easy to contact.

Steven, not totally sure, but the larger events might be relying first on some sort of Chicago special events permit, given the size. Also, your friend might want to set up a legal entity anyway to run this kind of event, for liability purposes alone.

Maybe also get in touch with the people who run Pinot Days, though that’s also a pretty large event.

As a general rule – when dealing with the City of Chicago plan WELL ahead. Bureaucracy is awful so it can take forever to get things done (though my sense is that it’s improving somewhat under Rahm).

Also, it never hurts to have a pol in your corner if you need things done.

Good point, Corey. Steven, has your friend reached out to his/her Alderman? In theory, their job is to help navigate the bureaucracy. In theory, of course.

It helps if you’ve voluntarily donated to their campain coffers, too.