Five Hundred Bottles, One Unforgettable Sleigh Ride
Beaver Creek · Vail · Upscale American Regional / Contemporary Mountain Cuisine · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed July 29, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Beano's Cabin’s wine list and gave it The Rager — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
You arrive by sleigh. That alone sets the tone. When the wine list lands on your table — 500+ selections deep in a mountain cabin — it's genuinely disorienting in the best way. This isn't resort filler; someone with real conviction built this thing.
The list leans hard into Napa and Burgundy as its twin pillars, which makes sense for the clientele, but there's more going on than that. The dessert wine section alone — Chateau Suduiraut Sauternes 2003, Günther Schlink Eiswein Riesling 2018, Elio Perrone Moscato d'Asti 2017, Dow's LBV 2011 — reads like someone actually loves this stuff rather than ticking boxes. The depth across the board suggests a sommelier who's been given real budget and real latitude. The gap is anything resembling adventurous mid-tier producers; this list caters to guests who want names they recognize, and it mostly delivers on that promise.
Glass pours run $15–$30, which is honest pricing for a venue that costs a sleigh ride to reach. The exact by-the-glass lineup wasn't fully disclosed during our visit, but the range suggests rotating options anchored in approachable Napa and European classics. Don't come here expecting a natural wine by the glass — this program is built for the tasting menu crowd, not the pét-nat crowd.
Elio Perrone Moscato d'Asti 2017 — $50
At a restaurant where bottles start at $50 and climb fast, this light, low-alcohol Moscato d'Asti is a smart, relatively affordable finish to a five-course meal — and it's genuinely good Perrone, not a throwaway pour.
S. Balboa Late Harvest Malbec 2017
Late harvest Malbec from Argentina is a rare find on any list, let alone one in a Beaver Creek ski cabin. Most people will scroll right past it chasing Burgundy or Napa Cab, which is exactly why you should order it — rich, raisined, and completely unexpected.
Dow's LBV 2011
A Late Bottled Vintage Port is a fine wine, but at Beano's markups, you're paying a premium for something you could grab at a good wine shop for a fraction of the price. With a dessert wine section this strong, your money works harder elsewhere on this list.
Chateau Suduiraut Sauternes 2003 + Colorado Lamb
This sounds counterintuitive until it isn't. A great aged Sauternes against a rich, gamey lamb preparation — especially with any stone fruit or root vegetable component in the sauce — creates a sweet-savory tension that the rest of the table will be talking about.
The Bottom Line
Beano's is the rare mountain resort restaurant where the wine list is genuinely worth the price of admission — steep markups and all. Send your friends here, warn them about the prices, and tell them to take the sleigh ride anyway.
· Vail · Gastropub
Here's the one concrete reason to pay attention to Capitol Public House's wine program: Wednesday half-price bottles. That single policy can turn an unremarkable list into a genuinely good deal. If you're a local in Eagle or passing through on a Wednesday, plan accordingly — even a middle-of-the-road bottle at half price is worth the stop. For everything else, manage expectations and let the whiskey bar do the talking.
Crowd Pleasers
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Occasional
Acceptable
· Vail · Latin-inspired small plates
Barriosocial is doing something genuinely unexpected in Vail: a wine list that reflects the food's Iberian DNA instead of defaulting to crowd-pleasing New World reds and overpriced Champagne by the bottle. The by-the-glass program alone — 20 options, fair pricing, real producers — is worth the visit. If you're eating in the mountains and actually care what's in your glass, this is the room.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Hotel Bar & New American
The Lobby Bar is fine — and in Vail, fine is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The list is short, static, and priced for people who just got off the mountain and aren't reading the bill too closely. If you're here, order the Grochau Pinot and call it a night; don't come looking for discovery.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Italian
La Nonna is an Italian restaurant in a ski resort town that somehow assembled one of the more thoughtful grower Champagne lists in Colorado — and that's genuinely worth acknowledging. Markups run steep across the board, which is par for the Vail course, but if you order smart (Mignon, Larmandier-Bernier, the Correggia sparkler), you'll drink better than almost anywhere on the mountain. Come for the pasta, stay for the bubbles.
Surprising Depth
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · New American
Larkspur has the bones of a Reliable — a thoughtful regional spread, a polished dining room, and a kitchen putting out serious plates like the Creekstone Farms strip loin and Ahi tuna crudo that deserve equally serious wine. We just don't have enough list detail to hand you a confident pick or warn you off a specific bottle. If you're heading here, ask the server what's drinking well right now and set a firm price ceiling before you open the book — Vail markups are real and they are not shy.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Steakhouse
Russell's isn't trying to be a wine destination and doesn't need to be — but the list is better than the room probably demands. Fair pricing, a genuine global reach, and twenty pours by the glass make this a steakhouse wine program worth engaging with. Order the Fincas de Ganuza, skip the Laurent Perrier, and leave the mountain resort markup where it belongs: on the cocktail list.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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