March 18--If you attended a wine event or took a wine class in Chicago in the past 25 years or so, chances are very good that Patrick Fegan was responsible.
Fegan died Thursday at Mercy Hospital in Chicago. He was 68.
The Bridgeport-born Fegan studied wine in Bordeaux and began his wine career in the 1960s at Geja's Cafe. "But he never forgot his roots," said John Davis, founder of Geja's Cafe. "That's one of the things I liked about him."
The founder of the Chicago Wine School in the mid-1970s, Fegan taught dozens, perhaps hundreds, of beginning, intermediate and advanced wine-tasting courses. He wrote extensively on the subject (including a number of columns in the Chicago Tribune, and the book "Vineyards and Wineries of America") and was in demand as a wine judge at events around the country.
"Pat made an enormous and incomparable contribution to the understanding of wine," said Davis. "His Chicago Wine School exposed thousands of Chicagoans to the joys of wine."
Carol Mighton Haddix, former Chicago Tribune food editor, said Fegan was "the person in Chicago if you wanted to learn about wine. His classes were phenomenal. He knew so much about the subject."
Haddix, who took some of Fegan's classes, recalled they were "always enjoyable" and described his teaching style as "casual, friendly." Also, he never played favorites when it came to wine. "He was totally nonpartisan," Haddix said.
"He was the best. Confident, witty, everything you wanted in a Chicagoan,'' said Bob Bansberg, the Evanston-based award-winning sommelier and wine educator. "Pat was one of those guys who knew what he was talking about."
"He gave people an education and nobody can take it away from you,'' Bansberg said. "I can't say enough about him."
Chicago restaurateur and master sommelier Alpana Singh recalled sitting beside Fegan at wine tastings. "He was always one of those gentle giants," said Singh. "He always had this soft, thoughtful way about him, and he was so nice to me when I first moved to Chicago.
"He never got enough credit for the tremendous impact he had on wine education in Chicago," Singh said. "When people would ask me about wine classes, his name was always on the tip of my tongue. He had a gift for making it approachable and fun."
Indeed, Craig "Meathead" Goldwyn, a barbecue authority, author and one-time Tribune wine critic who knew Fegan for decades, said that Fegan "was a real character." Goldwyn sometimes disagree with Fegan just to get a rise out of him. But then there were times like when the pair dressed in tuxes and attended a grand opening of a McDonald's restaurant with a fancy bottle of wine to share between them. "We had a ball," Goldywn said.
"The wonderful thing about Pat," said Bruce Cass, owner of Bruce Cass Wine Lab in San Francisco, "was that he had a very down-to-earth approach to wine. He enjoyed simply presenting the facts to his students and letting them make up their minds as to the merits of an individual bottle.
"He also got a kick out of bursting some of the audacious myths that made the rounds in the wine world," Cass said.
Fegan is survived by brothers and sisters Lois Fegan, Tom Fegan, Mike Fegan, Tim Fegan, Barbara Klauke, Joan Dissette, Maureen Sheedy and Mary Leonitis.
Funeral and memorial services are pending.
Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.
