Great Clams, Forgotten Wine List
· Newport · Seafood / Clam Shack · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · September 19, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Flo's Clam Shack – Middletown’s wine list and gave it The Lazy List — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The wine list at Flo's is less a list and more a footnote — two options, full stop. If you came here for serious wine, you took a wrong turn somewhere around Narragansett Bay.
Two labels. That's the whole program. There's a single unnamed house wine available by the glass, and a bottle of Moët & Chandon Champagne sitting at $90. No regions, no producers worth exploring, no effort to connect wine with what is genuinely excellent fried seafood. The menu category labeling — 'FLO'S $12.95 COMBOS, ICE COLD BEER' — tells you everything about where wine ranks in the priority order here.
One pour. It's listed simply as 'Wine' at $8/glass, which is either charmingly honest or a quiet cry for help. There's no indication of what it is, where it's from, or whether it rotates — our strong suspicion is that it does not.
The Bottom Line
Flo's is a genuine New England institution for fried clams and clam cakes, and we'd happily eat there any day of the week. But the wine program is essentially non-existent — two options, one of them a mystery, and one of them a Champagne marked up 100%. Order the ice cold beer instead; it's literally on the menu as the drink of choice, and they're not wrong.
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Bar 12 is a well-priced, no-drama wine stop in a city where wine lists can get away with being lazy and expensive. The selection is commercial and safe, but the Grüner and the Willamette Pinot Noir show someone made at least a couple of interesting calls. If you want a solid glass without a markup headache, it delivers — just don't come looking for discovery.
Crowd Pleasers
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Small but Thoughtful
Steal
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Proper
Outskirts / North End · Newport · Farm-to-Table / Winery Restaurant
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Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
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Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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