Kingston's best weird wine in a beautiful room
Midtown/Broadway · Kingston · Wine bar with vegetable-forward small plates · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed July 24, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Chleo’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The list at Chleo reads like a love letter from someone who actually travels — Georgia (the country), Slovenia, the Friuli, the Touraine — and doesn't feel the need to explain themselves. It's compact, maybe 30-odd bottles, but there's not a Malbec or oaky Chardonnay in sight. This is a room that made a choice, and the choice is correct.
Chleo leans hard into natural and low-intervention wines from underdog regions, and it works because the curation is tight rather than gimmicky. You've got Gotsa Family Wines' Tsitska Tsolikouri from Georgia sitting next to Kabaj's Pinot Grigio from Goriska Brda, a bottle that would embarrass anything called Pinot Grigio at your average Italian chain. Falkenstein's Riesling from Trentino and Antico Broilo's Friulano round out a seriously compelling northern Italian corner. The list has real range for its size — skin-contact, pét-nat, Champagne, and structured reds like the Kolfok Blaufrankisch from Burgenland — without ever feeling scattered.
Ten options by the glass, priced $11–$16, which is honest money for this caliber of wine. The Marie Thibault Gamay Pét Nat from Touraine and the il Folicello Bianco Ancestrale from Modena both show up as glass pours, which tells you everything about what kind of bar this is. Rotation isn't heavily documented, but the list reads like it gets attention.
Cantalapiedra Viticultores Verdejo Rueda 2021 — $14/glass, $56/bottle
Cantalapiedra is one of the most serious Verdejo producers in Rueda — old vines, minimal intervention, a wine that punches well above its weight class. At $14 a glass in a Kingston wine bar, this is a genuine steal for anyone paying attention.
Gotsa Family Wines Tsitska Tsolikouri 2021
Most people at this table will pass right over it because they can't pronounce it. That's a mistake. Gotsa is a family winery in the Republic of Georgia making wines from ancient local grapes with almost no intervention — the kind of thing that costs twice as much once it gets a write-up in a New York magazine. Order it before that happens.
Yann Alexandre Champagne NV
At $150 a bottle with no retail comp to check against, this is the one place on the list where the math gets fuzzy. It may be worth every dollar — Yann Alexandre is a respected grower — but when the rest of the list is so transparently priced, this one stands out as the splurge that mostly benefits the house.
Kolfok Blaufrankisch Burgenland 2021 + Tinned fish and charcuterie board
Blaufrankisch from Burgenland is built for exactly this moment — enough acid to cut through oil and salt, enough red fruit to play nicely with cured meat, and zero tannin to get in the way. It's the wine equivalent of a great supporting actor: it makes everything around it better.
The Bottom Line
Chleo is doing something genuinely rare for a small Hudson Valley wine bar — a list with a real point of view, honest prices, and wines you won't find at the place next door. If you're in Kingston and you care even a little about what's in your glass, this is the stop.
· Kingston · New American, Hotel Restaurant
Restaurant Kinsley is a hotel restaurant that treats wine as a utility — something to have on the table, not something to think about. The $10 flat pricing is fair and the Crémant is a bright spot, but five labels with no rotation and no depth is a hard sell if wine is part of why you're going out. Drink the bubbles, enjoy the room, and don't come here expecting a wine experience.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Kingston · Italian, Pizza and Pasta
Lola Pizza isn't trying to be a wine bar, but it's clearly not phoning in the list either. The natural wine orientation and Italian varietal focus are smart choices for the food coming out of that kitchen. We'd go back — and we'd let the list surprise us.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Kingston · Mexican Grill
Los Jalapenos isn't trying to be a wine destination, and the list makes that abundantly clear. At $7 a glass across the board the pricing is hard to argue with, but when you don't know what producer you're drinking, cheap doesn't feel like a win — it just feels anonymous. Order a margarita and save the wine night for somewhere else.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Kingston · Wine bar, small plates
Brunette is exactly the kind of neighborhood wine bar that mid-size cities desperately need — small, smart, and staffed by people who can actually talk to you about what's in the glass. The France-and-Germany backbone, the jewel-box intimacy, and the knowledgeable staff make this a genuinely worthwhile stop in Kingston, especially if you're pairing a pour with the baked oysters or working through the charcuterie. We'd send a friend here without hesitation.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Kingston · Bottle shop
Kingston Wine Co. is not trying to be everything to everyone — it stocks twenty bottles of stuff its buyers actually believe in, prices them honestly, and trusts you to figure out the rest. If you're in the Hudson Valley and you care about what's in your glass, this is a mandatory stop. Walk in, pick up the Leclair Gamay and the Tenuta Sella, and thank us later.
Small but Thoughtful
Steal
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Kingston · American Diner
Boulevard Diner is almost certainly a perfectly fine place to eat a stack of pancakes or a club sandwich. The wine list, however, is an afterthought — six anonymous varietals with no pricing, no producers, and no personality. Order the coffee.
Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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