Sky-high ambitions, sky-high list to match
Downtown Los Angeles · Los Angeles · American · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · April 7, 2026
RagingWine reviewed 71Above Restaurant & Skylounge’s wine list and gave it The Rager — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
You're on the 71st floor of a downtown LA skyscraper and the wine list arrives like it knows exactly where it is — thick, confident, and not apologizing for anything. The range runs from entry-level pours to Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, which tells you immediately this place is playing a different game than the restaurant two floors below street level. Wine Spectator has handed them a Best of Award of Excellence every year since 2017, and the list earns it.
The 400-600 bottle list leans hard into its four pillars — Burgundy, broader France, California, and Italy — and the depth is real. You've got Louis Jadot alongside Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet, Kistler Vine Hill Chardonnay holding court next to Opus One, and Antinori Tignanello representing Tuscany with authority. The California section is particularly strong, stacking household names like Caymus Special Selection and Screaming Eagle next to more composed choices. Where the list thins out is anywhere outside those four lanes — if you're hunting New World outside California or anything from Spain or the Southern Hemisphere, you're mostly on your own.
Twenty to thirty-five options by the glass is a serious program, with pours running $16 to $45 — a range wide enough to accommodate a pre-dinner Chardonnay or a serious red to go with that short rib. The Wednesday half-price wine night is the real headline: at 50% off, some of those glass pours become genuinely excellent value in an otherwise premium-priced room. We'd love to see more rotation to keep regulars engaged, but the sheer volume of options makes this a by-the-glass program worth leaning into.
Kistler Vine Hill Chardonnay 2021 — $185
Kistler is one of California's most respected Chardonnay producers and Vine Hill is a benchmark bottling. At $185 in a room where the ceiling is four figures and the views are priceless, this is the bottle that hits the sweet spot between splurge and sanity — especially on a Wednesday.
Antinori Tignanello
Everyone at the next table is ordering the Opus One or the Screaming Eagle, and Tignanello is sitting there quietly being one of Italy's most compelling Super Tuscans. It's the kind of wine that rewards people who actually read the list instead of ordering on name recognition.
Caymus Vineyards Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Caymus Special Selection is widely distributed and easy to find retail. In a list with this much depth — actual Burgundy, Gaja Barbaresco, Leflaive — spending your budget here feels like ordering a well cocktail at a craft bar. The restaurant can do better for you, and so can you.
Gaja Barbaresco 2019 + Short rib with bone marrow
Barbaresco's Nebbiolo grip and savory earthiness cuts straight through the fat in bone marrow while standing up to the braised richness of short rib. Gaja is one of Piedmont's defining producers and the 2019 vintage has the structure to handle this dish without getting buried by it.
Wednesday — Half-price wine by the glass every Wednesday — the single best reason to build your week around a mid-week dinner at 71Above.
The Bottom Line
71Above is a special-occasion room with a wine list that actually justifies the occasion — deep, well-curated, and anchored by serious producers across Burgundy, California, and Italy. The markups are steep and there's no sommelier to navigate it with you, but hit it on a Wednesday and the half-price glass program turns one of LA's most dramatic dining rooms into a genuinely smart wine stop.
· Los Angeles · California small plates
If this four-wine snapshot is the full extent of AOC's current public-facing wine program, it doesn't come close to living up to the restaurant's wine bar billing. The pricing is fair and the Vinho Verde earns its spot, but four uniform options with no dish context and no visible deeper list is not what you go to a place called AOC expecting. Come for the reputation — just hope the full list is hiding somewhere.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Beverly Hills · Los Angeles · Italian Seafood
Marea Beverly Hills brings genuine depth and regional curiosity to a wine list that could have easily coasted on crowd-pleasing Pinot Grigio and overpriced Super Tuscans — and it didn't. The markups are high, as expected for this zip code, and without clearer intel on staff knowledge or specials programming, the full experience is harder to guarantee. But the list itself earns serious respect, and if you navigate it well — start with the Strasserhof, finish with the Rossese — you'll drink far better than most tables around you.
Deep & Eclectic
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Proper
Beverly Hills · Los Angeles · Prime rib and steakhouse
Lawry's is a Los Angeles institution and the prime rib is genuinely the point — the wine list exists to support that experience, not steal the show. If you hit the weekday happy hour window between 5 and 6 PM, you might find the value equation improves considerably. Come for the beef, enjoy whatever Cab they pour, and don't expect the list to surprise you.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Occasional
Acceptable
West Hollywood · Los Angeles · Italian and French Café
Bottega Louie West Hollywood is a solid, reliable choice when you want wine that doesn't distract from the occasion — the room, the company, the cannoli. The Sunday half-price glass program is the single most compelling reason to choose this spot specifically for wine, and we'd encourage you to use it. Just don't expect the list to surprise you; this is a place that knows its audience and plays to them without apology.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Occasional
Acceptable
West Adams · Los Angeles · Italian pasta
Cento is a destination for the pasta first, and the wine list seems to know its supporting role without phoning it in. We'd want a verified menu in hand before steering you toward specific bottles, but the regional focus and the evident care in the room give us real confidence this isn't a place that treats wine as an afterthought. Go for the spicy pomodoro, ask what's pouring by the glass, and let the night unfold.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Los Angeles · French tasting menu
Mélisse is a destination for Champagne completists willing to pay fine dining prices for the privilege of choosing between four Philipponnat vintages or three Krug editions in a single sitting. But if you're hoping for a wine list that matches the ambition of a French tasting menu — with depth across regions and styles — the narrowness here will leave you wanting. Come for the bubbles, manage your expectations for everything else.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
· Yountville · American
RH Yountville is a genuinely beautiful place to drink wine — the room earns that much on atmosphere alone, and the California-forward list will keep most guests happy without any friction. But in Yountville, where the competition includes some of the most serious wine programs in the country, 'happy without friction' isn't the same as memorable. Go for the experience, order confidently by region, and don't expect the list to surprise you.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Bakersfield · American
Yard House Bakersfield is a beer hall that happens to sell wine, and the list makes no effort to hide that. Markups are aggressive, selections are safe to the point of being anonymous, and the only reason to open a bottle here is if your table voted against another round of IPAs. If you're wine-focused, redirect your budget to the Jean-Luc Colombo Rosé by the glass and call it a night.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Yountville · American
The Kitchen at Priest Ranch is a one-winery show, and that's exactly the point. If you want to spend an evening exploring what a single Napa estate produces across whites, rosé, Zinfandel, Merlot, and multiple Cabernet expressions — including older large-format bottles — this is a genuinely interesting way to do it. Just don't come expecting breadth or outside discovery. Send a friend here if they love Priest Ranch or want to.
Plays It Safe
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Proper
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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