Poughkeepsie's Best Kept Cellar Secret
Downtown / Cannon Street · Poughkeepsie · Wine bar with globally inspired small plates · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 23, 2026
RagingWine reviewed 1915 Wine Cellar’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
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Wingman Metrics
Walking into 1915, you immediately sense someone actually cares about what's in the glass. The list is compact — 14 labels — but it reads like a curator's edit rather than a distributor's dump. This is not a place that threw Meiomi and Malbec on a laminated sheet and called it a wine program.
The list punches well above its size. Italy anchors things with real weight — Ricasoli's Chianti Classico Gran Selezione and a Tenuta Sette Cieli Bolgheri red signal someone here is paying attention to the peninsula beyond Pinot Grigio. France gets a thoughtful nod via M. Chapoutier's Côtes du Rhône Belleruche Rosé and Pierre Sparr's Crémant d'Alsace. The genuine wildcard is Roberto Henriquez's Rivera del Notro skin-contact white from Chile's Valle del Itata — that's a natural wine nerd pick hidden in a Poughkeepsie wine bar, and it earns the room serious credibility. The only real gap is depth on the domestic side beyond the Amorio 'Bheeyo' Gewürztraminer/Zinfandel blend from California, which is more curiosity than anchor.
By-the-glass specifics weren't fully recoverable from available sources, but the '7 Before 6' happy hour program — everything $7 before 6 PM — suggests glass pours are central to how this place operates. That kind of aggressive early-evening pricing on a thoughtfully curated list is rare and worth building your Tuesday night around.
M. Chapoutier Côtes du Rhône Belleruche Rosé — N/A
Chapoutier's Belleruche is one of the most consistently overdelivering Rhône rosés on the market — garrigue, fresh strawberry, dry finish. At a downtown Poughkeepsie wine bar with $7 happy hour, this is the bottle you order before the food arrives and probably again after.
Roberto Henriquez Rivera del Notro skin-contact white Valle del Itata CH 2022
Most tables will walk right past this one, which is a shame. Valle del Itata is one of the most exciting emerging regions in South America, and Roberto Henriquez is making skin-contact whites there that feel genuinely alive — amber-hued, textured, funky in the best way. Order it and let your dining companion think you really know things.
Henry Varnay Blanc de Blanc Provence FR NV
Not a bad wine, but in a list this short, a non-vintage Provence blanc de blanc from a less distinctive producer is the safe filler pick. With a Chilean skin-contact white and a Bolgheri red on the same card, your glass dollars are better spent elsewhere.
Tenuta Sette Cieli Yantra Bolgheri + Yantra (Indian-inspired fried chicken)
The restaurant named a dish after this wine — that's not an accident. The Bolgheri's Merlot-Cabernet structure and plummy depth can handle the spice and richness of the fried chicken without getting steamrolled. It's a cross-cultural pairing that works on paper and, reportedly, in practice.
Tuesday–Thursday — '7 Before 6' happy hour: everything $7 before 6 PM. Confirmed recurring program; specific half-price wine night framing was not verified in sources.
🎲 The Bottom Line
1915 Wine Cellar is doing something genuinely surprising for downtown Poughkeepsie — a focused, globally curious wine list staffed by people who actually know it, with happy hour pricing that makes experimentation low-risk. Yes, send your friends here for wine.
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Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Plays It Safe
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Arlington · Poughkeepsie · Italian / Pizza
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Plays It Safe
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Lola's Cafe is the café wine list that shouldn't exist but does — and we respect it. If you're hitting the Walkway Over the Hudson and want a glass of actual wine with your lunch, this is the move.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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The Dutch Crown won't blow your mind, but it'll treat you right — especially if you steer toward the New York producers and ignore the filler. For a gastropub in the Hudson Valley, this is a wine list that's actually trying, and that's worth showing up for.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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