Inside the main lobby of Krannert Center is soft jazz mixed with a rosy colored glow reminiscent of Edith Piaf’s “La Vie en Rose.” On a small table, an assortment of cheese and fruit stands by a vase filled with an autumnal arrangement. Next to this table is another set with a bucket of ice, tiny plastic cups and three bottles of wine – two red and one white. This is the setting for Krannert Uncorked.

Krannert Uncorked is a mixture of 21-year-old and older students, faculty and Krannert regulars that come almost every Thursday to sample varieties of wine and learn about performances while relaxing with friends.

Megan Gushurst, senior in LAS, enjoys coming to Krannert Uncorked with a few of her good friends. “It’s the end of our week … it’s nice to go and relax after a hard day of school,” she said.

“The best thing is it’s free!” laughed her friend, Kristin Bauer, also a senior in LAS, who said she likes trying the different wines to learn which types appeal to her palette.

According to the Krannert Web site, the center partners with Sun Singer Wine & Spirits, The Corkscrew Wine Emporium, Friar Tuck Beverage, jim gould and Bacaro Wine Bar & Italian Restaurant to provide the beverages to be sampled at Krannert Uncorked. The wine is then available for purchase by the glass at a special discounted price during the tasting and is featured for the remainder of the week on performance nights.

This past Thursday, the Corkscrew Wine Emporium provided three different wines for people to sample.

The first was the white 2007 Cousino-Macul Sauvignon Gris. The sommelier and Corkscrew sales representative, Jonathan Vincent, a graduate student, described the Chilean wine as light, crisp and citrusy with grassy tones and said that it was a beautiful food wine.

The second was the red 2004 Domaine Monpertuis Counoise. Vincent said this wine was a very dry wine similar to merlot and said it was a classic French table wine that would be paired with a simple weeknight dinner in France.

The third wine was the red 2004 Tablas Creek Cotes de Tablas. Vincent said this wine was a Californian wine done in the French style that blends varietals of grapes, including the counoise that was the only varietal found in the 2004 Domaine Monpertuis Counoise.

For those that do not know a lot about wine or what types of wine they like, Vincent recommends getting together with a group of friends and trying different types of wine from all around the world and comparing them.

“Wine is fun, don’t make it snobby,” Vincent said. “It should not be a status symbol.”

Even the seemingly pretentious practice of swirling the wine around in the mouth has a practical purpose. It allows the wine to aerate and makes the drinker pay attention to the different notes in the wine, Vincent said. He also recommends that you allow red wines to aerate for even an hour before you drink them to really bring out the flavors, but cautions that young white wine is supposed to be consumed immediately after popping the cork.

Krannert Uncorked provides an intimate environment for people who are interested in taking some of Vincent’s advice and want to learn more about wine, to gather with friends and do just that.

In the words of Ann Vannice, the recruiter and admissions advisor for the UIC College of Nursing at the Urbana regional program, “It’s unstuffy and welcoming!”