Serious French Bones, Zero Pretense
· San Francisco · French · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · September 30, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Absinthe Brasserie & Bar’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Eighteen bottles, eighteen pours — that's not a wine list, that's a manifesto. Every bottle available by the glass is either a bold curatorial statement or a cost-control trick, and at Absinthe it reads like the former. The range stretches from a $15/glass Alsace Riesling to a $65/glass Robert Chevillon Nuits-Saint-Georges Premier Cru, which tells you this list has actual ambitions.
The spine is French and unapologetically so — Sancerre, Irancy, Saumur-Champigny, Puligny-Montrachet, Crémant du Jura, Haut Médoc — but the list makes room for a California Carignan from Wiley Wines and a Sonoma Coast Pinot from Brooks Note without making it feel like a concession. The Burgundy presence is real: François Carillon's Puligny-Montrachet Le Clos du Vieux Château 2015 and Robert Chevillon's Nuits-Saint-Georges 1er Cru Les Pruliers 2012 are names that belong on serious restaurant lists, not just brasserie menus. Gaps exist — no natural wine flag-waving, light on the southern Rhône and Italy entirely absent — but what's here is chosen with a point of view. The 2017 Clotilde Legrand Saumur-Champigny showing up alongside a 2012 Chevillon suggests someone is actually managing a cellar, not just hitting a distributor's rep list.
The full-bottle-equals-full-glass-menu format means you get genuine range by the pour, from the $15/glass Domaine Fontchêne 'Leon' Rosé of Grenache to the $65/glass Chevillon Premier Cru — which, for a 2012 from that producer, is an honest price for a restaurant setting. Eighteen glass options is a lot to navigate, but the spread across sparkling, white, rosé, and red is real, and the price floor is accessible enough that this isn't a list built only for expense-account diners.
The Bottom Line
Absinthe pulls off something harder than it looks: a tight, all-by-the-glass list that still has genuine depth and fair pricing across almost every tier. The Chevillon and Carillon alone signal that someone here takes wine seriously, and the entry-level pours — Carignan, Riesling, Grenache Rosé, all at $15/glass — mean you don't have to spend big to drink well. If you're near Hayes Valley and want a real glass of Burgundy or an obscure Loire red without a lecture, this is your spot.
· San Francisco · Japanese izakaya
Rintaro's wine list is a four-bottle edit that respects your intelligence and suits the food. Pricing is fair, the selections are deliberate, and nothing feels like it wandered in from a default distributor catalog. If you're comfortable with a short list and trust that someone thought about it, this is a good place to drink wine with dinner.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Woodside · San Francisco · French-Californian
The Village Pub earns a Wild Card badge because it's a genuinely serious wine program hiding inside what looks like a charming neighborhood spot — Michelin-noted, sommelier-driven, and pulling from regions most Peninsula restaurants don't bother with. Main courses run $40–$70+, and wine markups at this tier tend to be ambitious, so go in with eyes open on spend. But if you're in the area and care about what's in your glass, this is worth the reservation.
Deep & Eclectic
Steep
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
· San Francisco · Wine bar and charcuterie
The Refuge is a cult neighborhood joint in San Carlos that earns its Wild Card badge by caring about wine in a context where nobody would blame them for not bothering. The regional focus on France and the West Coast is genuine, not decorative. We don't have enough sourced detail to hand you a specific bottle recommendation, but if you're already going for the pastrami — and you should be — ask about what's open and drink something French. You'll likely be pleasantly surprised.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Financial District · San Francisco · American Tavern
Wayfare Tavern's wine list is small, California-centric, and static — but it's priced fairly and punches above its weight in a couple of spots, especially if you wander into the dessert wine section. For a quick Financial District dinner where you want a decent glass without overthinking it, this list does its job. Don't come here for a deep cellar experience, but don't dismiss it either.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Cow Hollow · San Francisco · French tasting menu
Bar Crenn earns its Wild Card badge not because it's a dive with a surprise cellar, but because a French wine-bar concept inside one of San Francisco's most celebrated dining empires is genuinely unexpected — and by all accounts, it delivers. We can't give you the full pick-card breakdown until the list is sourced, but the setting, the food credentials, and the French-leaning program are enough to tell you this is worth a reservation. Just go in knowing wine is part of the experience here, not a sideline.
Small but Thoughtful
Steep
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
· San Francisco · Beer and Wine Bar
Woods Biergarten is doing something genuinely rare: running a thoughtful, adventurous California wine program inside a beer-forward space, built around single-vineyard sourcing and varieties most restaurants wouldn't touch. We don't have pricing data to fully vet the value play, but the ambition alone earns a visit — bring someone who thinks they don't like wine and order them the Corvina.
Surprising Depth
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Diego · French
Fleurette is running one of the more thoughtful all-glass wine programs in San Diego — small, curated, and genuinely interesting rather than safe. If you want a bottle-heavy cellar experience, this isn't your spot. But if you want to drink well by the glass with a French-leaning list that actually has opinions, it absolutely is.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Yountville · French
Angele is a genuinely lovely spot — the room, the food, the riverfront setting all deliver — and the wine list appears to hold its own for a French bistro in Napa without trying to be something it's not. That said, wine-country markups are real here, and without a deeper confirmed list to work from, we'd say: order what the staff recommends, keep your expectations calibrated to 'solid bistro' rather than 'serious wine destination,' and let the duck confit do the heavy lifting.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · French
La Tour is not trying to be everything to everyone — it's a French restaurant in Vail that has quietly built one of the more credible white Burgundy lists in Colorado. The pricing is fair by resort standards, the selection has genuine depth from Chablis through Meursault, and there are a few bottles here that would turn heads in a serious wine city. If Chardonnay is your thing, this list is worth your time. If it's not, order the cocktails.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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