Category: Wine In Chicago
The Italian Village is Pretty Chill on Reds
It’s hot. It’s stupid hot. It’s asphalt melting under your feet, sweat through your clothes, exploding into flame hot and I’m thirsty and I want a glass of red wine but come on—if I pour one out on my patio it’s just gonna boil. I wish I could serve it cold, but I’m no idiot.…
No Average Joe at Joe’s Imports
Not your average Joe, Joe’s Imports shines in Fulton Market. Come for the wine. Stay for the food. Come back for the hospitality. Go let Joe work his magic on you!
Wine and Song with Hannah Grossman
THE TRACK “Dreams” | Fleetwood Mac | Rumours released in 1977, the band’s only number-one hit. But really, this song was written by Stevie Nicks, alone at a piano in a stylish bedroom studio belonging to Sly and the Family Stone. Fleetwood Mac was experiencing a tumultuous emotional train wreck only achievable by coked-out musicians…
Wine and Song with Corey Drake
Wine and song is an occasional series on Wine in Chicago featuring a local sommelier challenged to pair a great song with a great wine. Song “Fake Plastic Trees,” Radiohead, from their 1995 album, The Bends. Radiohead found themselves in the charts with their grungy hit, Creep, in 1992. The label had pushed them to come…
Daphne Stratta Builds a Wine List You Can Dance To
You may have overlooked Steadfast. Like, there you are furiously thumbing through Yelp reviews for local beef and burgundy joints because your senior partner just did you a solid and you want to take her out for a chop and some Chave but merde: The Loop. The prices. You’re just an associate. You drive a…
Wine and Song with Seth Wilson
Wine and song is an occasional series on Wine in Chicago featuring a local sommelier challenged to pair a great song with a great wine. Song “Feeling Good,” written by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse; recorded by Nina Simone for her 1965 album, I Put a Spell on You. It was never released as a single…
Wine and Song with Amy Lutchen
Wine and song is an occasional series on Wine in Chicago featuring a local sommelier challenged to pair a great song with a great wine. Song: “Baker Street,” Gerry Rafferty; #2 on Billboard, 1979. A song that captures the transition from the soft rock of the 70s to the AOR of the 80s. It is a…
Freaking Out For Five Darioush Wines at Del Frisco’s
Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse. It’s a cold October evening, one of the first really cool nights of the year. I’m walking into one of the private rooms upstairs next to the top of the Wine Tower when their Master Sommelier, Amy Lutchen, hands me a glass of 2017 Darioush Viognier and my ability to describe…
Stemmari's Hedonis Riserva is Crazy Good
I’m standing in the doorway of the stunning private room at the Fig & Olive in the Gold Coast. Waiters are scooting around me with trays full of dishes that look like they are plated just so someone can take their picture. A charming hostess is pouring me another glass of an Italian Rosé and I’m…
The Benny's Chop House Wine Director Knows Wine
The wine cellar at Benny’s Chop House is immediately behind the bar. It’s tall and narrow. Just wide enough for two people to pass each other if they’re really close friends. We’ve scooted all the way back, past the working end of the bar’s soda machine that hisses and scares the daylights out of everybody. We’re…
Too Legit to Spit Showcases SevenFifty's Reach
Wine industry database superstar SevenFifty launched their industry-only tasting event, Too Legit to Spit, at Morgan Manufacturing Monday night. Twenty-five top Illinois distributors showed up to serve their best bottles of booze to Chicago buyers, sellers, and beverage managers. Big Star’s staff offered trays of walking tacos and pork balls as a DJ mixed 70s blue-eyed…
The Eno Wine Bar is Funky and Sophisticated
The sommelier at Eno Wine Bar is weird. He divides his duty between recommending giant steak-supporting cabs in Michael Jordan’s on one side of the lobby of the Hotel InterContinental to pushing oddball single vintage naturally fermented low production wines in Eno, on the other side of the lobby of the Hotel Intercontinental. While I…
