Ilis

The wine list at Ilis lands with the same quiet confidence as the restaurant itself — no flashy gimmicks, just a 250-350 bottle book that makes you sit up straighter. It reads like someone actually thought about this, hard, and then kept thinking. A Best of Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator since 2024 is the credential; the producers on these pages are the proof.

Champagne and Burgundy are the clear anchors here, and they go deep — we're talking Krug, Jacques Selosse, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, and Henri Jayer territory, which puts this list in rare company for a Brooklyn restaurant that opened in 2023. Germany gets serious attention too, with Egon Müller Scharzhofberger and Dönnhoff representing the kind of Riesling most wine lists treat as an afterthought. Italy shows up with real weight via Giacomo Conterno and Bruno Giacosa Barolo, and California earns its seat with Ridge Monte Bello rather than the usual suspects. The Nordic-American concept gives the list a natural excuse to lean old-world, and sommeliers Jason Santiago and Paulo Coelho take full advantage of it.

Somewhere between 12 and 20 pours by the glass, priced $15–$30, which is honest money for the level of wine being opened. The program skews toward producers with actual pedigrees — expect Domaine Weinbach or Dönnhoff to show up here — though the rotation doesn't appear to change frequently. If the glass list holds even half the ambition of the bottle list, it punches well above most of what Brooklyn offers.