French Wine Seriousness at 10,000 Feet
On-Mountain (Top of Polar Queen Express) · Telluride · French-inspired alpine dining · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 26, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Bon Vivant’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
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Wingman Metrics
You're unclipping your ski boots and sitting down to a list that opens with Taittinger and closes with Olga Raffault Chinon — not what you expect when lunch is usually a $14 lift-line hot dog. Fourteen wines total, every single one available by the glass, and all of them French. That's a bold editorial decision, and mostly it works.
The list reads like someone actually cared: Champagne, Loire, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhône, and a left-field Cahors from Clos La Coutale for the crowd that knows what Malbec looked like before Argentina got hold of it. Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis and Langlois Sancerre anchor the whites with proper Loire credibility, while Raspail-Ay Gigondas brings serious Rhône weight to the reds. The gap is obvious — no Alsace, no Beaujolais, no Champagne rosé — but for 14 wines, the hits outweigh the misses.
Every bottle on the list is available by the glass, which is either generous programming or a sign of a tight inventory — probably both. The price ceiling hits $36 a pour, which stings at altitude but is survivable if you're splitting it with a powder day worth celebrating. Rotation appears minimal; this reads like a set list, not a living document.
Clos La Coutale Cahors — $72/bottle
Cahors is chronically underpriced relative to its quality, and this is one of the appellation's most consistent producers. At the low end of the bottle list in a ski resort restaurant, it's the move for anyone who wants a serious, dark, structured red without paying Bordeaux prices.
Olga Raffault Chinon
Most tables here are reaching for the Champagne or the Gigondas, which means Raffault's Chinon — one of the Loire's iconic Cabernet Franc addresses — sits quietly on the list waiting for someone to notice. Earthy, herby, and completely wrong for the person who thinks red wine has to be big and oaky. Completely right for everyone else.
Taittinger Brut La Française Champagne
It's a fine Champagne. It's also available at every wine shop in America for around $40-45 retail. At mountain resort by-the-glass prices, you're paying a serious premium for a bottle you could have picked up on the way to the airport. Save the Champagne budget for somewhere that offers something you can't find at Total Wine.
Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis + French onion soup
The soup is rich, salty, and deeply savory. Brocard's Chablis is lean, mineral, and unapologetically austere — it cuts right through the broth's weight and resets your palate between bites. Classic French logic applied at 10,000 feet.
🎲 The Bottom Line
Bon Vivant has no business being this interesting for a ski mountain lunch spot, and the all-French, all-by-the-glass format is a genuine swing. Markups are resort-level steep, but the curatorial effort earns it a pass — just order something you couldn't find at the hotel bar.
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Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
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Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Seasonal Rotation
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Plays It Safe
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Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Active Program
Acceptable
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Small but Thoughtful
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Solid Range
Steep
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
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