Bedford Village Inn

Corks Wine Bar at Bedford Village Inn arrives with more ambition than you'd expect from a New Hampshire inn. Forty labels isn't enormous, but the by-the-glass program — 25 options running from $12 to $26 — is the real story here, and it signals that someone actually cares about how this list functions night to night. It's a wine program that wants to be taken seriously, and mostly earns it.

The list leans into approachable classics with enough international range to keep things interesting: Provence rosé from both Miraval and Château Paradis, a Charly Nicolle Petit Chablis sitting alongside a Cherrier Père et Fils Sancerre, and a Thanisch Kabinett Riesling from Mosel that shows someone bothered to think about Germany. The red side covers Napa Cab with Faust, a Super Tuscan from Banfi Bolgheri, and a Malbec from Bodega Cuarto Dominio Lote 44 — solid crowd pleasers with a few genuine picks. The Cruvinet system for preservation is a meaningful detail: it means those by-the-glass pours are actually in good shape rather than oxidized leftovers from Tuesday. Gaps exist — no Pinot Noir of note, thin on Spanish and Italian beyond the Tuscan side — but the bones are respectable.

Twenty-five by-the-glass options is genuinely impressive for a restaurant of this size, and the Cruvinet system means the wine in your glass should actually taste the way it's supposed to. The range spans sparkling (Billecart-Salmon Inspiration 1818 is a legit flex at any price), through rosé, whites, and reds, though prices push toward the top end of what feels fair for southern New Hampshire. Rotation appears limited — this reads more like a locked-in program than something that gets refreshed with the seasons.