Après-ski brasserie hiding a serious cellar
Downtown / The Little Nell · Aspen · Brasserie / Casual Fine Dining · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed July 27, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Ajax Tavern’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
You show up for truffle fries and a glass of rosé after a morning on the mountain, and then someone mentions the Little Nell cellar is technically accessible from this very barstool. That changes the calculus fast. On the surface, Ajax looks like a crowd-pleasing ski-town spot — and it is — but there's a deeper play available if you know to ask.
The list runs 150–300 labels and leans into the reliable crowd: Napa Cabernet and Merlot, Côtes de Provence rosé, some Burgundy, a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or two, and Italian options filling in the gaps. Duckhorn Merlot and Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc show up as anchor bottles — recognizable names that sell well in a room full of skiers and tourists. The real intrigue is the pipeline to The Little Nell's grand cellar; ask the right person and you can pull something genuinely special that never appears on the printed menu. Burgundy is represented but not deep, and there's no serious natural wine presence to speak of.
Expect somewhere between 12 and 20 pours by the glass, anchored by the inevitable Whispering Angel and a reliable Napa red. The program is built for high turnover on a sunny terrace, not for exploration — rotation is minimal and the picks skew toward what sells fast at altitude. That said, the quality of what's poured is respectable, and with a sommelier in the building, you can usually get a straight answer about what's actually worth ordering.
Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc — null
In a room full of trophy Napa bottles and inflated Provence rosé, Cloudy Bay punches above its Aspen price point — crisp, food-friendly, and the right call alongside the lobster roll or a lighter lunch order. It's not glamorous, but it's honest.
Little Nell Cellar Selection (on request)
The printed menu doesn't tell the full story. Ask the staff about pulling from The Little Nell's cellar and you may land a Burgundy or older Napa bottle that has no business being available at a brasserie. It's not cheap, but it's the kind of find that makes the meal memorable.
Whispering Angel Rosé
It's everywhere in Aspen and it's marked up accordingly. You're paying for the bottle recognition and the Instagram moment, not for anything the wine is doing that a lesser-known Provence rosé couldn't do for half the price.
Duckhorn Merlot + Steak frites
Duckhorn's Merlot is ripe and structured enough to hold up to a proper steak without overwhelming it — and steak frites is exactly the kind of brasserie classic that needs a mid-weight red with some backbone, not a sledgehammer Cab.
The Bottom Line
Ajax is a Wild Card in the best sense: it looks like a ski-town crowd pleaser and mostly delivers exactly that, but the Little Nell cellar access turns it into something you can't fully predict. Come for the fries, stay curious about what's hiding in the back.
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