Schwa-Chicago-culinary-art-wine-dinner

Schwa Chicago - a place to experience food as art

Our Pour Boys wine group returned with the girls to dine at Chef Michael Carslon's simple non-descript storefront with the black awning, Schwa Restaurant in Wicker Park, Chicago.

We took a broad diverse flight of fine wines to pair with the nine course artfully crafted haute culinary journey that stimulates all the senses with imaginative dishes that are as artful as they are tasteful.

Schwa provides a perfect BYOB experience as they choreograph an extraordinary culinary course with our extensive wine flight. In retrospect, we learned to bring a more diverse flight of wines rather than three Bordeaux, for example ... A spectacular wine/dine experience in any event. 

Our wine flight:

Fantesca Sonoma County Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2009
Sea Smoke Single Barrel One Santa Rita Hills Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir
Chateau Pavie Macquin St Emilion Bordeaux 2004
Chateau Troplong Mondot St Emilion Bordeaux 2005
Chateau Leoville Las Cases St Julien Bordeaux 2006
Chateau Suideraut Sauterne Bordeaux 2013
Bricco Luciani Mauro Molino Barolo 2013
Crofts Vintage Port 2003

Friend and colleague Mike S joined us from Conneticut and added a new dimension to our wine group and wine flight with two of his own personally crafted wines - Michael's Amarone 2007 and Michael's Super Tuscan Blend 2007.


The culinary artwork mastery of Schwa ... neither pictures nor words can do justice to the olfactory and sensory experience. The music is loud and the pace is frenetic ... too much so to take in the details and keep up ... Go during the week when there is only one seating so you might have more time. Of course bringing so many wine courses didn't help. The staff do an amazing job parsing through the courses and matching the wines.

Pretzel twig ... shitake mushrooms ...

Peanut butter ... crab medallions ...

Signature dish ... shaved truffel, quail egg filled ravioli ...

Trout Roe ...

Spanish Mackerel ...

Seaweed Sea Smoke ...

Beef braised tip  ... served in incense smoker bowl ...

Foie gras ...

Sorbet ...

For so many wines, one tends to hold to compare each against the previous and following resulting in a wide swatch of glasses ...!

http://www.schwarestaurant.com/

Home-made Michael Schwartz wines highlight wine dinner

Home-made Michael Schwartz wines highlight wine dinner

For a customer/business partner dinner, we hosted a special dinner at Vinifera Wine Bistro at the Westin Hotel in Reston, VA. Business partner and colleague Michael Schwartz brought two bottles of special home vinted wine from his private cellar to serve BYOB at the dinner. As a wine aficionado and wine snob extraordinaire I was intrigued by the prospects of trying Mike's wine, but I admit my expectations were very low. I couldn't imagine a home produced wine with grapes or juice sourced from a commercial supplier being any good, let alone being sophisticated serious wine! Wow, what a surprise. Well done, Mike! Both wines were hits of the evening, actually overshadowing a special reserve Napa Valley Bordeaux varietal that I brought from home for the occasion.  

For the opening wine in the flight, Mike served his own Pinot Noir.  I write often in these pages about how difficult it is to find a moderately priced high QPR Pinot Noir. This was an amazing wine discovery! 

Odd Couple Winery, Michael Schwartz Home-vinted Lodi, Ca (Bottled at Lewisboro Valley New York) Pinot Noir 2010

This wine was produced by Mike in collaboration with fellow winemaker John Vuolo who has since gone on to found South Salem Winery, in South Salem, NY.

Ruby colored, moderately opaque, light bodied, this was a full forward brilliant vibrant fruit bomb with full flavored dusty rose, cranberry and red berry fruit flavors, bursting with tangy cinnamon spice - nicely balanced, polished, concentrated and complex, turning to a tangy tongue coating tannin finish. 

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2489858







Michael Schwartz Home-vinted Chateau Schwartz Italian Corvina (Bottled at Lewisboro Valley New York) Amarone 2008 

Like the Pinot above, this wine also blew me away with its relative balance and polish. This was the favorite of several of the diners at our dinner. 

Dark inky colored, full bodied, full concentrated black berry and black raspberry fruits flavors with tones of raisin, black cherry, smoke, creosote and hints of fig with a modest tannin finish. Lacking a core or structured backbone, otherwise this might have been as much a blockbuster surprise as the Pinot, impressive none-the-less.

RM 87 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2489882





Robert Keenan Winery Mailbox Vineyard Special Reserve Napa Valley Spring Mountain District Merlot 2004

For fun and to honor friend and business associate and one of our dinner guests, I brought this special namesake wine, a vineyard designated Napa Valley Reserve Merlot from Robert Keenan Winery, high atop Spring Mountain.

This wine had special significance for the evening, being the namesake for one of our guests, and it was discovered and sourced at the winery during  our 2007 visit there with colleague, business partner and friend AJ during one of our many Napa Wine Experiences together. I served one of these labels at a special holiday dinner a few years back, and gifted one to this friend as well. All the bottles mentioned, including tonight's bottle were in Magnum format.

Served last, this was appropriate in the tasting order as it was big forward concentrated fruit, even for a Merlot. At a dozen years of age, this bottle is just hitting its stride.

Dark garnet colored, full bodied, smooth polished and nicely balance, blackberry and black raspberry fruits accented by tangy cherry notes, tones of cinnamon spice, cedar, tea and tobacco leaf with hints of anise, creosote and smoke.

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=630922

https://www.keenanwinery.com/

http://southsalemwinery.com/

http://www.viniferabistro.com/

Home-made Michael Schwartz wines highlight wine dinner

Home-made Michael Schwartz wines highlight wine dinner

For a customer/business partner dinner, we hosted a special dinner at Vinifera Wine Bistro at the Westin Hotel in Reston, VA. Business partner and colleague Michael Schwartz brought two bottles of special home vinted wine from his private cellar to serve BYOB at the dinner. As a wine aficionado and wine snob extraordinaire I was intrigued by the prospects of trying Mike's wine, but I admit my expectations were very low. I couldn't imagine a home produced wine with grapes or juice sourced from a commercial supplier being any good, let alone being sophisticated serious wine! Wow, what a surprise. Well done, Mike! Both wines were hits of the evening, actually overshadowing a special reserve Napa Valley Bordeaux varietal that I brought from home for the occasion.  

For the opening wine in the flight, Mike served his own Pinot Noir.  I write often in these pages about how difficult it is to find a moderately priced high QPR Pinot Noir. This was an amazing wine discovery! 

Odd Couple Winery, Michael Schwartz Home-vinted Lodi, Ca (Bottled at Lewisboro Valley New York) Pinot Noir 2010

This wine was produced by Mike in collaboration with fellow winemaker John Vuolo who has since gone on to found South Salem Winery, in South Salem, NY.

Ruby colored, moderately opaque, light bodied, this was a full forward brilliant vibrant fruit bomb with full flavored dusty rose, cranberry and red berry fruit flavors, bursting with tangy cinnamon spice - nicely balanced, polished, concentrated and complex, turning to a tangy tongue coating tannin finish. 

RM 91 points. 

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2489858







Michael Schwartz Home-vinted Chateau Schwartz Italian Corvina (Bottled at Lewisboro Valley New York) Amarone 2008 

Like the Pinot above, this wine also blew me away with its relative balance and polish. This was the favorite of several of the diners at our dinner. 

Dark inky colored, full bodied, full concentrated black berry and black raspberry fruits flavors with tones of raisin, black cherry, smoke, creosote and hints of fig with a modest tannin finish. Lacking a core or structured backbone, otherwise this might have been as much a blockbuster surprise as the Pinot, impressive none-the-less.

RM 87 points.  

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=2489882





Robert Keenan Winery Mailbox Vineyard Special Reserve Napa Valley Spring Mountain District Merlot 2004

For fun and to honor friend and business associate and one of our dinner guests, I brought this special namesake wine, a vineyard designated Napa Valley Reserve Merlot from Robert Keenan Winery, high atop Spring Mountain.

This wine had special significance for the evening, being the namesake for one of our guests, and it was discovered and sourced at the winery during  our 2007 visit there with colleague, business partner and friend AJ during one of our many Napa Wine Experiences together. I served one of these labels at a special holiday dinner a few years back, and gifted one to this friend as well. All the bottles mentioned, including tonight's bottle were in Magnum format.

Served last, this was appropriate in the tasting order as it was big forward concentrated fruit, even for a Merlot. At a dozen years of age, this bottle is just hitting its stride.

Dark garnet colored, full bodied, smooth polished and nicely balance, blackberry and black raspberry fruits accented by tangy cherry notes, tones of cinnamon spice, cedar, tea and tobacco leaf with hints of anise, creosote and smoke.

RM 92 points.

https://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=630922

https://www.keenanwinery.com/

http://southsalemwinery.com/

http://www.viniferabistro.com/