A rotating program of thoughtful, intimate wine dinners, the Cellar Series offers Nightwood patrons an opportunity to hear the stories behind some of our favorite wineries, farms, and other artisan producers. Set against the backdrop of our wine cellar, these dinners aim to give our guests the chance to try a chef's tasting menu, inspired by the featured beverages, and, of course, the season. Our goal is to host these dinners on weeknights, and while the aim is for casual education, the past series dinners have all proven to make for truly remarkable evenings.

Please enjoy the menus and photos from past events, and do call to sign up for our upcoming dinner. Space is very limited. Reservations required.

Call 312-526-3385 to make your reservation.

MONDAY MAY 21, 2012
Cellar Series #4 with Firelands Winery and Lagniappe Beverage

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MONDAY APRIL 16, 2012
Cellar Series #3 with Grapes of Spain

Aurelio Cabestrero's got wine in his blood. His family hails from the prestigious Ribera del Duero region, and he worked as a sommelier in Madrid for many years. Now he runs a boutique Spanish wine import company based in Washington, DC, and we planned this dinner for his visit to Chicago. This dinner had quite an ambitious menu, with seven courses paired with nine wines. The main courses featured a "throwdown" style of pairing, where we poured multiple wines reflective of distinct vintages or terroirs. Aurelio had a story to tell for all of his lovingly selected wines, and kept the room in stitches. It was a wine-drenched dinner, to be sure, full of really distinct pairings, including beefy red wines with dessert, of all things!

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MONDAY MARCH 26, 2012
Cellar Series #2 with Winderlea Vineyards

Bill Sweat and Donna Morris left their former careers as financial advisors in Boston for the bucolic serenity of Oregon's Willamette Valley. As a husband-and-wife team, they now make top-notch Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, sourcing their grapes from what was once called the Goldschmidt vineyard, which holds some of the oldest plantings of Pinot Noir in the valley. Up until this dinner, their wines were not sold in Chicago. What followed was one heck of a kickoff party, with Craig Perman [www.permanwineselections.com, please link] as our guest and retail partner. The menu was a reflective of Chef Vincent's excitement over spring, and the culinary bounty it offers. This dinner sold out in no time, filled mostly by Chicagoans who have been waiting for the wines to arrive for years now. We were very fortunate to pour the 2011 Winderlea Rose of Pinot Noir with dessert, which is made in tiny quantities exclusively for their wine club members.

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MONDAY MARCH 12, 2012
Cellar Series #1 with Athenee Imports

For our inaugural Cellar Series dinner, we partnered with Andrea and Giota Englisis, the dynamic mother and daughter team that run one of the few exclusively Greek import portfolios in the country. While making their way across the country with a roving band of Greek winemakers for a multi-city trade show, they stopped down in Pilsen to host a fantastic wine dinner with us. We had three winemakers [from Argyros Estate, Gaia Vineyards, and Domain Spiropoulous], and served up six courses, plus canapes during the sparkling wine reception. Each winemaker sat at his own table, and all attendees got to hear the backstories for some of the most unique wines we've encountered. No dishes, we are sorry to report, were smashed.