Adorn in Chicago Expands Its Wine Programme With Rare Allocations

Adorn Bar & Restaurant, the dining room at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, has expanded its wine programme to more than 413 labels and introduced a calendar of winemaker dinners that gives guests a rare, dateable route into allocated and collectible bottles. The expansion, announced on 24 June 2026, sits under a new female-led leadership team and carries the 2026 Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence, recognised for quality, depth and service.

The figures give a sense of the ambition. The list now runs to 413 or more labels, with thirty-plus wines available by the glass — a breadth that lets a guest move from an opening glass to a considered bottle without leaving the page. For a hotel restaurant, the Best of Award of Excellence is a meaningful marker; Wine Spectator reserves it for cellars that show genuine depth across regions and producers rather than simply a long list.

What distinguishes the offering is access to wines that are usually difficult to taste by the glass. A Coravin Selection allows by-the-glass pours of premium icons, with The Mascot and Fortunate Son among the labels available by the pour. The Coravin system draws wine without pulling the cork, which is precisely what makes pouring a single glass of a sought-after bottle viable — a guest can taste something normally sold only by the full, and costly, bottle.

Behind the list sit two temperature-controlled cellars, which preserve red and white wines separately. That separation is what allows the restaurant to hold pristine verticals from the Harlan family of estates — Harlan Estate, BOND and Promontory — where condition across multiple vintages is everything. An extensive half-bottle collection rounds out the cellar with elite producers including Krug, Gaja and Altesino, a format that suits a couple wanting to taste seriously over a single dinner without committing to a full bottle of each.

The human element is addressed through a ‘Sommelier in Residence’ offering, which brings tableside education and expertise from Level 1 and Level 2 sommeliers. The intent is guidance rather than ceremony: a guest can ask for context on a Piedmont vintage or a Napa producer and have it explained at the table, which is the kind of service the Wine Spectator citation rewards.

For those who like to plan around an event, two dinners are already fixed on the calendar. A Rare Champagne Dinner takes place on 9 September 2026 — four courses, opening with a Piper-Heidsieck welcome reception. On 13 November 2026, a Bruno Giacosa estate dinner spotlights Piedmont Nebbiolos and Barolos, drawing on one of the most respected names in the region. Both form part of a new quarterly wine dinner series.

Beyond the headline dinners, the programme is built to reward repeat visits. Bimonthly Magnum programmes and sommelier-led bar tastings are planned throughout the year, giving the bar a rhythm of its own rather than treating wine as an occasional set-piece. The Magnum format, in particular, lends itself to a table of several guests and to wines that benefit from the slower evolution a larger bottle allows.

For a discerning traveller, the practical point is straightforward. A stay at Four Seasons Hotel Chicago now comes with on-property access to allocated and library wines that are otherwise hard to encounter outside a private cellar, alongside a structured series of dinners worth timing a visit around. The two autumn dates are the clearest place to start, and the Coravin list rewards a quieter evening at the bar in between.

Source: Four Seasons