San Diego's Most Adventurous Glass Pour Program
· San Diego · Coastal Italian / Seafood · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · August 17, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Garibaldi’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
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Wingman Metrics
The list at Garibaldi hits you like a geography quiz you actually want to take — Corsica, Cyprus, Dalmatia, and Turkey all showing up before you even get to Italy. This is not the Pinot Grigio-and-Chianti coastal Italian list you were bracing for. Someone here is paying attention.
Twenty-three labels that span the entire Mediterranean rim and then some — Greek Assyrtiko from Domaine Nerantzi, Niellucciu/Sciaccarellu from Domaine Vico in Corsica, a Croatian Babić from Testament, and a Cypriot sparkling Pet-Nat from Tsiakkas. The Italian representation is present but not dominant, which is actually a flex — Gaja Idda's Carricante from Etna and Agricola Punica's Montessu Carignan blend from Sardinia do the heavy lifting. There are real gaps in classic regions (no Burgundy, no Barolo, no Rioja), but that's clearly a conscious choice, not an oversight. The bottle range of $56 to $116 keeps things accessible without feeling cheap.
Here's where Garibaldi goes full wild card: every single bottle on the list is also available by the glass, at $12 to $29. That's not a typo — 23 by-the-glass options including the Gaja Idda Carricante and the Oenops Limniona. The glass-to-bottle ratio is essentially 1:1, which is either a genuinely progressive pour philosophy or a logistics nightmare, but either way you benefit.
La Ferme Rouge Sauvignon Blanc/Vermentino — $56
The lowest bottle price on the list and it's not some throwaway house wine — La Ferme Rouge is a serious Moroccan producer making textured, mineral-driven whites. At $56 for a bottle that trades on novelty and quality both, this is the easiest yes on the menu.
Testament Dalmatian Dog Babić
Babić is a Croatian red variety that almost nobody in American restaurants bothers with, and Testament is one of the few producers doing it justice. It's got the structure to stand up to a table full of seafood without overwhelming it — and at $72 a bottle, most diners will walk right past it for something safer. Don't.
Gérard Bertrand Chardonnay
At $76, this is the least interesting bottle on an otherwise fascinating list. Gérard Bertrand is a massive Languedoc operation making perfectly serviceable wine at scale — nothing wrong with it, but it sticks out like a grocery store endcap in a list full of genuinely rare producers. Your $76 goes much further on the Domaine Nerantzi Assyrtiko or literally anything from Corsica.
Gaja Idda Carricante + Grilled seafood
Carricante from Etna is volcanic-soil white wine at its most expressive — high acid, saline, and citrus-driven in a way that's almost engineered for grilled fish. The Gaja Idda bottling brings some weight and complexity without losing that coastal snap. It's the right wine for whatever comes off the grill here.
The Bottom Line
Garibaldi is the kind of place that restores your faith in restaurant wine lists — a coastal Italian concept that completely rejects the expected and builds something genuinely curious around the Mediterranean's underdog regions. Send your adventurous friends here and tell them to skip the Chardonnay.
· San Diego · Steakhouse
Greystone is a reliable, if predictable, steakhouse wine list — the kind where you can always find something decent but you'll rarely be surprised. Skip the Opus splurge, order the Paradigm, and you'll walk out satisfied.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Diego · Steakhouse
Morton's San Diego is spending more energy on the wedge salad than the wine list, and it shows. Come for the steak, order carefully, and don't expect much beyond the obvious.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Diego · Coastal New American / Rooftop
Birdseye is a rooftop bar that happens to have wine, not a wine destination that happens to have a rooftop. Drink the view, order a cocktail, and if you must order wine, go Cava or Miraval and call it a day.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
San Diego · San Diego · Steakhouse
Fleming's San Diego is a reliable if unambitious wine destination — the sheer volume of by-the-glass options earns it real points, but the markups and chain-wide uniformity keep it firmly out of must-visit territory. Go for the steak, order smarter than the table expects, and keep your eyes on the lower half of the price list.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Diego · New American
Paradisaea's wine list punches well above what you'd expect from a San Diego New American — eclectic without being pretentious, fairly priced without being cheap. We'd send a wine-curious friend here and tell them to skip the obvious bottles and dig into the Italian section.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Diego · Italian
Allegro's wine list isn't trying to impress anyone, and that's not a knock — it's a focused, fairly priced selection that does exactly what a brunch Italian spot needs it to do. Send a friend here for bubbles and a mid-afternoon white; just don't expect to geek out over the reds.
Crowd Pleasers
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
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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