Two or Four at Wilhelm Family Vineyards in Elgin

Identifying different flavor notes in wine is a mark of refinement, like discerning the pedigree of a horse by its taste in jazz. Sip on singular vintages with this Groupon.

Choose Between Two Options

$24 for a catered box lunch and wine tasting for two (up to a $52 value)
$45 for a catered box lunch and wine tasting for four (up to a $104 value)

Each meat or vegetarian box lunch also includes a side and a dessert. Diners sip five wines from a selection of more than 20 vintages and join in a Q and A with the winemaker or assistant. Posttasting, guests take home their choice of three commemorative wineglasses.

Wilhelm Family Vineyards

Karyl Wilhelm rolls up her children's pant legs and washes their feet. She hoists them into a vat filled with freshly picked syrah grapes, which they stomp to their hearts' content as the fruit squelches delightfully between their toes. It's 2007 and Karyl is producing her very first batch of wine. She gets lucky and it comes out perfectly, bursting with a nuanced and flavorful bouquet. Karyl ages the concoction in barrels, but neglects to fill them completely. The excess air turns the wine into vinegar—albeit vinegar bursting with a nuanced and flavorful bouquet.
Since then, Karyl has completed U.C. Davis's renowned Winemaker’s Certificate Program and steered clear of such novice mistakes. Spread out on 20 acres of fertile land—with traits comparable to Rioja in Spain, France's Rhone region, and Saturn's seventh ring—Wilhelm Family Vineyards yields an assortment of grapes that produce wines such as the tempranillo-based Kevin's Choice, an award-winning blend named after Karyl's pilot husband. Each bottle of wine leaves the grounds with a stamp of approval in the form of Karyl's signature, which is written directly on the bottle in eye-catching metallic ink.

Guests who enter the tasting room enjoy a warm welcome from a 95-pound weimaraner named Chancellor, who muses over the earthy notes of his rawhide bone while patrons sample the winery's selection of red, white, semisweet, dessert, and seasonal wines. As veterans of the first Gulf War, Karyl and Kevin celebrate each Veterans Day by hosting a Patriot Salute Festival, whose proceeds go to support the Wounded Warrior Project.

Though Wilhelm Family Vineyards sometimes offers a discounted price online, this Groupon is still the best deal available.