Wine Spectator last week released its annual restaurant awards, doling out medals for the best wine lists across the country.
This year, 30 Denver restaurants made the list, across three categories. Only one Denver restaurant — Barolo Grill — received the grand prize. That title is reserved for wine cellars with more than 1,000 bottles, and a “serious breadth of top producers, outstanding depth in mature vintages, a selection of large-format bottles, excellent harmony with the menu and superior presentation,” according to the judging criteria.
But 29 more restaurants were singled out for their selections of 90 to 350-plus bottles. We thought you could use this information for, say, planning your next patio night, or picking up some date-night takeout.
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Restaurants are listed by award category and alphabetically.
All the wine
(Grand Award — 1,000 or more bottles)
Barolo Grill
Lots o’ wine
(Best of Award of Excellence — 350 or more)
801 Chophouse
Barcelona Wine Bar
The Capital Grille
Chow Morso Osteria
Edge Restaurant & Bar
Elway’s Cherry Creek
Guard and Grace
Mizuna
Palace Arms (temporarily closed)
Panzano
Quality Italian
Shanahan’s Steakhouse
Tavernetta
Venice Ristorante & Wine Bar
Plenty of wine
(Award of Excellence — 90 or more)
Coperta
Fire (at the Art hotel)
Fogo de Chao
French 75
Il Posto
Luca
Morton’s (since closed)
Narrative
The Nickel
The Oceanaire Seafood Room
Ocean Prime
Osteria Marco
The Palm Denver (since closed)
Tag
Urban Farmer
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