Colorado’s best wine-drinking spots, named by Wine Spectator
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Colorado may be known as a craft beer-centric state, but according to Wine Spectator, the options for wine drinkers aren’t too shabby, either.
This week, the publication released its 40th annual Restaurant Awards, which highlight the best wine lists you’ll find dining out. Sixty-eight Colorado establishments made the cut in 2021. In total, more than 2,900 restaurants were honored globally.
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Wine Spectator awards restaurants in three categories, the top being the Grand Award, which showcases places that feature more than 1,000 different selections and display “immense depth and breadth of regions, producers, vintages and bottle formats,” according to judging criteria.
Three Colorado establishments — Barolo Grill in Denver, Element 47 in Aspen and Flagstaff House in Boulder — earned the Grand Award this year. (See the full list of honorees here.)
Here’s what you can expect from the best wine lists in Colorado:
Barolo Grill “lives up to its name with a menu of Piedmont specialties and a wine program steeped in that region’s premier labels,” Wine Spectator’s Julie Harans and Taylor McBride wrote. “A page of the wine list is dedicated to the team’s favorite finds on their annual trip to Italy.”
“Fine French wines dominate the list at this family-owned restaurant, where highlights include over 100 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti labels and 25 vintages of Château Lafite Rothschild,” the authors said of Flagstaff House. “At an elevation of 6,000 feet, the dining room features floor-to-ceiling windows that frame panoramic views of the Colorado mountains.”
Element 47 is a destination within Aspen’s The Little Nell. “Numerous top sommeliers have honed their craft here, each adding a personal stamp to the expansive bottle collection,” the authors said.
