Comedian George Carlin once asked, “What wine goes with Captain Crunch?”
The answer is probably Two-Buck Chuck, but you’ll never find the competent Trader Joe’s vintage Charles Shaw on a restaurant wine list—and it’s no longer $1.99 anyway.
What you’ll find are highly quaffable and highly coveted wines, especially at award-winning restaurants named in last month’s Wine Spectator magazine.
The venerable ode to oenophiles published its annual list of restaurants worldwide that received Wine Spectator awards for their contents of their cellars.
Some are right here in OC.
Three-Part Harmony
Spectator awards are judged on three levels.
The Award of Excellence recognizes restaurants whose lists feature a well-chosen assortment of quality producers.
A Best of Award of Excellence denotes more extensive selections with significant vintage depth and excellent breadth across multiple regions.
The Grand Award, given to 100 global restaurants, is the journal’s highest honor. This elite cadre signifies the world’s absolutely best wine programs, which deliver “serious breadth of top producers, outstanding depth in mature vintages, excellent harmony with the menu, and superior presentation.”
We got one.
Studio at Montage Laguna Beach has one of the Grand Awards, the sixth consecutive year it has won.
The restaurant offers top labels from California, Burgundy, Rhône, Bordeaux, Italy, Champagne, and Spain. Its wine program has nearly 2,500 selections with 30,000 bottles in inventory.
Besties
Best of Award of Excellence category local winners include the Winery Restaurant & Wine Bar in Tustin and Newport Beach, Andrea at Pelican Hill Resort, Mastro’s Ocean Club and Mastro’s Steakhouse, AnQi, The Hobbit, Napa Rose inside Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, The Ranch, Selanne Steak Tavern, and Splashes at Surf & Sand Resort.
Another two dozen OC eateries earned Award of Excellence designations.
How important are these awards?
“If you’re in that magazine, that issue, you are respected in the business—you have a wine list that needs to be noticed,” said William Lewis, partner and sommelier at the Winery Restaurant.
Lewis said he selects wines people know and recognize, along with a few they may not.
“We have your higher-end wines like Screaming Eagle, Scarecrow, Schrader, names like that, but you have to find other things in other price categories. The Paso Robles region offers great value and flavor.”
Mainly, he looks for wines that go with the restaurant’s cuisine, which features game and beef, and wines that offer good value for their price.
The Winery regularly hosts wine dinners with noted labels and winemakers.
The Winery Tustin, 2647 Park Ave., Tustin 92782, (714) 258-7600, thewineryrestaurants.com
The Winery Newport, 3131 West Coast Highway, Newport Beach 92663, (949) 999-6622, the wineryrestaurants.com
