Caldo Verde

Walk into Caldo Verde and the wine list feels like a deliberate edit — not a sprawling tome, but a focused card that knows exactly what it wants to be. Spain and France anchor the whole thing, and there's a confident thread running through the selections that signals someone actually thought this through. Wine Spectator handed them an Award of Excellence starting in 2023, and the list earns that nod.

The Iberian backbone here is real: Alvaro Palacios' Les Terrasses from Priorat at $112 sits alongside the crowd-pleasing Bodegas Roda I Roda 2019 from Rioja at $95, giving you both the wild and the polished side of Spanish wine. France shows up with some serious credentials too — Domaine Jamet's Côte Rôtie 2021 at $185 is a proper Northern Rhône pick, and the Domaine Huet Vouvray at $88 covers the Loire with real authority. The list isn't wide, but the hits-to-misses ratio is high, which matters more anyway. Gaps exist — no deep dive into Burgundy beyond the Château de Pommard Bourgogne entry point, and Italy and the New World are mostly absent — but what's here has a point of view.

We don't have a full BTG count from the data, but the Txakoli Ameztoi Rubentis 2022 at $58 a bottle suggests there are at least a few pours worth ordering. Wednesday's half-price wine night changes the calculus entirely — coming mid-week when those pours are cut in half is the move. Rotation cadence is unclear, but the list's focus on Spain and France means the glass options likely follow the same logic.