In between shopping, cooking, and partying the season away, take a moment to catch your breath or catch up with an old (or new) friend. Bill Smith shares his top tips for wines by the glass and where to find them to make your holiday season shine.
Many restaurateurs pride themselves on a well-curated and diverse wine cellar with offerings into the hundreds (or more). They should. Offering dining patrons the world in a bottle requires purpose, a fat wallet, as well as a wine professional with an impeccable palate – a triad not often achieved.
But for many of us, perfection is found when an establishment offers up a stellar wine by-the-glass list.
Thankfully, a number of local restaurants (and their notable wine talent) have created some of the state’s most exceptional wine by-the-glass list. Here are our favorites.
Best Wines By-The-Glass for Seasonal Sipping in Santa Fe
If you don’t know what a Coravin is, well, it’s wine magic. A device that uses food-safe argon gas to prevent oxygen from entering a bottle can utterly transform a restaurant’s by-the-glass offerings putting these establishments into a league of their own. Coyote Café, Market Steer Steakhouse, and The Anasazi Restaurant at the Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi all have Coravin by-the-glass programs and all three also boast some of New Mexico’s top wine talent.
The Anasazi Restaurant
113 Washington Avenue, Santa Fe
Top Picks: Antinori Tignanello; Charles Krug Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon; Ridge Three Valleys Red Blend
At Anasazi, you can partake in Chef Cristian Pontiggia’s Pappardelle Bolognese with a glass of Antinori’s sublime Tignanello or his Akaushi beef tenderloin with a glass of legendary producer Ridge’s Three Valleys Zin-heavy blend. And their regular by-the-glass list continues to include my own “house red,” Charles Krug’s Napa Valley Cabernet. Somm Kristina Hayden Bustamante transitioned to Anasazi this summer and tells TABLE that her target is to have 30 great wines on their by-the-glass list by year’s end.
Coyote Cafe
132 Water Street, Santa Fe
Top Picks: J.L. Chave Marsanne/Roussanne; Vega Sicilia “Unico”; Sine Qua Non Syrah Eleven Confessions
Coyote Café’s “Reserve Selections” includes 10 premium by-the-glass wines including a stellar Marsanne/Roussanne from J.L Chave, Vega Sicilia’s “Unico,” a Tempranillo blend from Spain’s Ribero del Duero, and Sine Qua Non’s incredible Syrah Eleven Confessions Vineyard from Sta. Rita Hills. Their regular by-the-glass offerings are inventive and far from run-of-the mill, including a diverse offerings from Spain.
Market Steer Steakhouse
213 Washington Avenue, Santa Fe
Top Picks: Orin Swift “8 Years in the Desert”; Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon; Henri Coastal Grand Cru Chablis; Tenuta di Arceno.
Market Steer Steakhouse has a dozen wines on their “Reserve Wine By the Glass” list with exceptional wines from both the New and Old World. For those who gravitate to the New, Orin Swift’s “8 Years in the Desert” Zin blend is the perfect pairing to The Duel, a “bar snack” of both pork and beef bacon. Silver Oak’s Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is also a welcome sight. So too is the Grand Cru Chablis bottling from Henri Costal (long live Chardonnay!) and Super Tuscan from Tenuta di Arceno. And wine lead Tyler Rudoff’s regular wines by-the glass list is perhaps the city’s best curated in its diversity as well as breadth – there is something for everyone – and at very accessible price points
Apart from the premium wines by-the glass that a Coravin program makes possible, many other restaurants have excellent wines by-the glass lists.
315 Restaurant and Bar
315 Old Santa Fe Trail, Santa Fe
Top Picks: Darroze Les Grand Assemblages Armagnac.
At 315 Restaurant & Wine Bar, Old World offerings by-the-glass have no equal in our fair city. Nearly 20 wines are offered by-the-glass (excluding the great list of sherry and madeira) and also lean heavily into France and Italy, with the vast majority available at under $20 a glass. I also recently had an incredible 20-year Armagnac, Les Grand Assemblages from Darroze.
The Compound
653 Canyon Road, Santa Fe
Top Picks: Duckhorn North Coast Sauvignon Blanc; Ridge Three Valley Red Blend; Domaine Drouhin Chablis; Bodegas Covila Tinto; Marchesi di Gresy Barbera d’Asti.
The Compound has one of the city’s most impressive cellars and it extends to a wine list that includes over a dozen wines by-the-glass. Familiar New World names like Duckhorn (the North Coast Sauvignon Blanc) as well as Ridge (the Three Valley Zinfandel) are set alongside notable Old World producers like Domaine Drouhin (Chablis), Bodegas Covila (Tinto/Tempranillo) and Marchesi di Gresy (Barbera d’Asti). It’s a diverse and well-balanced list that invites exploration.
Joseph’s Culinary Pub
428 Agua Fria Street, Santa Fe
Top Pick: Cline Small Berry Mourvèdre.
Joseph’s Culinary Pub and wine lead Starr Bowers have also created an exceptional array of offerings by-the-glass. The diverse list covers the bases for most diner’s oenophilic predilections – a Mencia from Spain, Nebbiolo from Piedmont, a California Cab Sauv, an orange wine, a white line up with one each from France, Spain, Germany, Italy, as well as the United States. And following up on a great find from this summer’s Cline/Gust wine dinner during Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta, they also now have the unique and delicious Small Berry Mourvèdre from old vines in California’s Contra Costa County on their by-the-glass list.
Honorable Mentions
La Mama
225 East Marcy Street, Santa Fe
Top Picks: Terres Dorées Roussanne; Vino Rosso Cancelli.
If minimal intervention, natural wines are your thing, we have two strong recommendations that will challenge common prejudices about these types of wine. La Mama’s solid by-the glass list includes a Roussanne from French producer Terres Dorées, with herby undertones and also hints of salted caramel and tart apple. The Vino Rosso Cancelli from Montepulciano was another standout.
Copita and Paloma
403 and 401 South Guadalupe Street, Santa Fe
Top Picks: Bow and Arrow Pinot Gris, Bow and Arrow Gamay and Pinot Noir; Old World Winery Ecstatic Consciousness.
At Copita in the Railyard, I swooned over Oregon-based Bow and Arrow’s skin contact Pinot Gris (and their adjoining sister restaurant, Paloma, has the producer’s Gamay and Pinot Noir) as well as a delicious chilled red-blend, Ecstatic Consciousness, from Sonoma’s Old World Winery.
Palace
142 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe
Top Pick: Taittinger Nonvintage Champagne.
While the ever-talented Austin Flick will be departing Palace at year’s end, the wine by-the glass list at the Santa Fe institution is a master class on how restaurants can consistently challenge and excite the wine knowledge of their patrons. It changes frequently, but that’s the point. Oh, and they also serve Taittinger nonvintage by-the-glass.
Story by William (Bill) Smith
Photo Courtesy of Coyote Cafe
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