Trophy Bottles in a Beaux-Arts Throne Room
Midtown · New York · American Steakhouse · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed April 8, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Charlie Palmer Steak IV’s wine list and gave it The Rager — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The wine list at Charlie Palmer Steak IV arrives the way the room itself does — with intent. You're on the fourth floor of the Knickerbocker Hotel, surrounded by Beaux-Arts bones, and the list in your hands runs 400-plus bottles deep with Burgundy, Bordeaux, and California heavyweights staring you down. This is not a wine program that apologizes for itself.
The list is built around the holy trinity of serious steakhouse wine: Champagne, Burgundy, and Bordeaux, with a California Cab chapter that reads like a greatest-hits album. You'll find Château Margaux and Lynch-Bages anchoring the Bordeaux side, Louis Jadot and Joseph Drouhin covering approachable Burgundy, and then Screaming Eagle and Harlan Estate for those who want to drop serious money without blinking. Italy gets a respectable cameo — Gaja Barbaresco and Sassicaia show up and earn their place. The gaps are real: New World outside California is thin, and if you're hunting for anything outside the classic power regions, you're going to feel the walls close in quickly.
With 20-35 by-the-glass options, the pour program is legitimately one of the better ones in the Times Square corridor — not hard to achieve, but still worth noting. Expect Bollinger and Krug Champagne by the glass alongside Caymus Special Selection and Silver Oak on the California side. Rotation feels minimal — this list has the energy of something that gets updated seasonally at best.
Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon — $100
Silver Oak punches above its retail price in restaurant settings, and at a venue where the ceiling is Screaming Eagle, it lands as the most accessible entry point into serious California Cab without completely wrecking your evening financially.
Château Lynch-Bages
Most tables at a steakhouse like this gravitate toward the California names they already know. Lynch-Bages is a Pauillac powerhouse — fifth growth in classification, but first growth in personality — and it absolutely sings next to a dry-aged ribeye. Most people skip past it. Don't.
Caymus Vineyards Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Caymus Special Selection is a fine wine, but it's also one of the most marked-up bottles in the American restaurant system. You will pay a significant premium for a label that does most of its heavy lifting through brand recognition. The money is better spent going a little deeper into the Bordeaux or Burgundy section.
Gaja Barbaresco + Prime dry-aged ribeye
Gaja Barbaresco brings the kind of tension — tart cherry, iron, dried roses, structural tannins — that cuts through the fat of a well-marbled dry-aged ribeye without steamrolling it. It's the pick for anyone who wants to feel like they know something the rest of the table doesn't.
The Bottom Line
Charlie Palmer Steak IV earns its Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence honestly — the list is deep, the trophy names are real, and the setting makes every pour feel like an occasion. Just know going in that you're paying Manhattan steakhouse prices, and budget accordingly.
Midtown · New York · French Brasserie
La Grande Boucherie earns its place as a reliable stop for wine in Midtown, especially if you're leaning French. The glass list is genuinely wide and has some smart picks buried in it — the Fleurie and the Wiemer Riesling both punch above their price points. Markups trend steep as you climb the bottle list, so your money works hardest in the by-the-glass section. If you're here for the brasserie experience, the wine program holds up its end of the deal.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· New York · Steakhouse
BLT Prime's wine program is glass-only, which limits your options if you came for a big bottle moment, but the pricing is honest and the selection is more thoughtful than most steakhouses bother with. If you're keeping it casual and ordering by the glass, you can drink well here without feeling taken advantage of — and that's not nothing in this city.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· New York · Restaurant
The Palm Midtown is not where you'd expect to find Puzelat and Ruth Lewandowski sitting next to each other on a wine list — which is exactly what makes it worth a second look. Six bottles is a short menu, but all six are defensible picks at prices that don't insult you. If you're in the mood to trust the list and not overthink it, this works.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Murray Hill · New York · Classic American Steakhouse
Wolfgang's is a reliable steakhouse wine experience in the sense that you know exactly what you're getting: a list built around the bottle you already know, priced for the room you're sitting in. If you're here to close a deal over a Porterhouse for Two, the wine list will do its job without embarrassing anyone — but it's not going to surprise you, and it's almost certainly going to cost more than it should. Go in with eyes open and a strong second-choice red in mind.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· New York · Mediterranean
Zaytinya's wine list is a rare thing in New York: a focused, regionally coherent program that commits hard to Greek and Eastern Mediterranean varieties without making you feel like you need a flashcard to order. The by-the-glass selection alone — 18 options, all under $18, featuring producers most wine lists wouldn't touch — makes this worth visiting even before the food arrives. If you eat here and order a Cabernet, that's on you.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
SoHo · New York · Italian
A long bottle list with Italian, Burgundy and Champagne sections, fronted by a 22-wine glass page. For a glass, try the Skerk Orange Wine from Friuli at 25/95, and for a bottle on a lighter budget, the Volpaia Vermentino at 60; upstairs in the café, the labeled list pours Palistorti di Valgiano's orange Tuscan blend at Glass $22. Confirm prices before you order, because the site's Upstairs Café dinner menu and the beverage PDF do not match. This unrated guide covers the posted wine lists, not service, storage or markups.
· McLean · American Steakhouse
We don't fully understand how a six-bottle list this good ended up at The Palm Tysons Corner, but here we are. If you're eating here and care about wine at all, this list deserves your attention — especially that Sancerre at $23. It's a small program, but it's a thoughtful one, and in a category full of lazy steakhouse lists, that counts for a lot.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· The Woodlands · American Steakhouse
We're working with event-night evidence, not a full house list, so drawing firm conclusions about Del Frisco's Grille's everyday wine program would be dishonest. What we can say is that a six-wine promotional dinner built around one producer family isn't a reason to make this your wine destination. Come for the steakhouse experience — but don't expect the wine list to be the main event.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Occasional
Acceptable
· Ashburn · American Steakhouse
Eddie Merlot's is a dependable upscale steakhouse that delivers on the beef side of the equation. The wine program appears to be functional rather than inspired — a crowd-pleasing list built to sell confidently, not to excite. If you're coming for a business dinner or a straightforward date night and want a Napa Cab with your prime-aged ribeye, you'll be just fine. If you want something to talk about on the drive home, you might need to bring your own bottle or do a little pre-visit homework.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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