Bottega Napa Valley

The wine list at Bottega lands with authority — 150 bottles deep, organized with purpose, and clearly curated by someone who actually drinks wine. It's Napa-forward without being Napa-only, and that alone puts it ahead of half the restaurants on this street. The moment you flip past the obligatory Cab section and find Txakolina and Grüner Veltliner, you know there's a real thinker behind this list.

Napa Cabernet anchors the list as expected — Frank Family, Honig, Andrew Geoffrey, and all the way up to Harlan Estate and Opus One for the table that's celebrating something real — but what keeps it interesting is the range around it. Italy gets genuine love: Piedmont, Tuscany, and even some Iberian action with the Raúl Pérez Mencía from Bierzo. France shows up with Champagne (Gaston Chiquet 1er Cru, not some supermarket brand), a Dezat Pouilly-Fumé from the Loire, and a half-bottle of Château d'Yquem for dessert if you're feeling reckless. The Bedrock Old Vine Zinfandel is a smart nod to California heritage outside the Cab bubble, and the Hirsch Grüner Veltliner from Kamptal is the kind of pick that signals the list curator has eaten well in Vienna. There are some gaps in Burgundy depth and the southern hemisphere is thin, but for a restaurant in Yountville, this is a genuinely thoughtful global spread.

Twenty to twenty-four pours by the glass is a serious program — most restaurants half-ass this section, but Bottega commits. Prices run $10–$23 a glass, which is reasonable for Yountville where everything costs more because the zip code demands it. The Adami Prosecco and Ameztoi Txakolina as glass options are the kind of choices that make you trust the list; nobody puts Txakoli by the glass by accident.