Come for the beer, skip the wine list
Old Town · Fort Collins · Brewpub fare / American tavern food · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 1, 2026
RagingWine reviewed CooperSmith's Pub & Brewery’s wine list and gave it The Lazy List — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
You open the menu at CooperSmith's and the beer section goes on for days — which is exactly where you should be looking. The wine list is seven bottles deep, all of them names you'd recognize from a gas station end-cap. This is a brewpub that knows what it is, and wine is clearly not part of the identity.
Seven wines, every single one a mass-market label: Dreaming Tree, Josh Cellars, The Show, Velvet Devil, Donini, The Path, Oyster Bay. That's the whole list — no depth, no regional curiosity, no local Colorado producers even though the state has a real wine scene worth exploring. The geographic spread (California, New Zealand, Italy) looks diverse on paper but lands as purely accidental — these wines share shelf space at Safeway, not a wine buyer's vision. There are no gaps to critique because there's nothing ambitious enough to have gaps.
Every bottle on the list is also available by the glass, so the BTG program is technically the entire program. At $7–$10 a pour, the prices feel fine until you remember these bottles retail for $10–$15 at your local grocery store — then the math stings. No rotation, no seasonal surprises, no half-price nights to soften the blow.
Velvet Devil Merlot — $8/glass
It's the cheapest pour on the list and at least Charles Smith's Velvet Devil is a known, drinkable Merlot with some actual personality behind it. If you're getting wine here at all, this is the least painful entry point.
Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc
It's not hidden and it's not a gem, but Oyster Bay is a genuinely reliable Marlborough Sauv Blanc that punches above the surrounding company on this list. If you're stuck choosing, at least this one has some brightness and tension to it.
Dreaming Tree Cabernet
Ten dollars a glass for a Dave Matthews-branded grocery store Cab that retails around $12 a bottle. That's a brutal pour-to-bottle markup, and the wine itself brings nothing you couldn't get for less somewhere else.
Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc + Black & Bleu Burger
The sharp citrus edge of the Sauvignon Blanc cuts through the bleu cheese's richness and doesn't compete with the char on the patty. It's not a sophisticated pairing — nothing about this situation is — but it works better than you'd expect.
The Bottom Line
CooperSmith's is a genuinely great Old Town brewpub, and if you're here for a pint of their award-winning craft beer, you're doing it right. The wine list exists because restaurants feel obligated to have one, not because anyone here cares about it — order a beer.
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One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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