HMF at the Breakers

The wine list at HMF lands like a heavyweight — 800 to 1,200 selections housed inside what used to be the Breakers' legendary Florentine Room, now buzzing with cocktail energy and the kind of crowd that actually knows what's in their glass. This isn't a list padded with filler; the anchors are DRC, Screaming Eagle, Château Pétrus, and Harlan Estate, which tells you exactly where priorities lie. It's aspirational, occasionally humbling to the wallet, and genuinely impressive.

California and Burgundy are the twin pillars here — Kistler Vineyards and Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet anchor the whites, while the reds reach from Giacomo Conterno Barolo and Gaja Barbaresco in Piedmont to E. Guigal Côte-Rôtie in the Rhône and the full Bordeaux first-growth lineup. Champagne gets serious real estate too, with Salon Blanc de Blancs on the list — a wine most restaurants wouldn't dare stock. The depth across Tuscany and the Rhône rounds out a list that holds its own against any major metropolitan restaurant, let alone a hotel bar in Palm Beach. Gaps are hard to spot; this list has been curated with intent, and the Wine Spectator Grand Award it's held since 1981 is not an accident.

With 20 to 35 pours running $14 to $40 per glass, the by-the-glass program is more than a courtesy — it's a proper program backed by a team of five sommeliers who can actually talk you through it. The range covers the list's major regions, so you can dip into a Rhône or a Burgundy without committing to a full bottle. Don't expect a lot of rotation or adventure here; this is a hotel program that leans toward accessibility over experimentation.