Alaska's Most Ambitious Wine List, Full Stop
Midtown · Anchorage · New American · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · May 30, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Kinley's Restaurant & Bar’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
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Opening Kinley's wine menu in Anchorage feels like finding a full vinyl record shop in an airport — you weren't expecting this, and it genuinely stops you in your tracks. Three hundred bottles and thirty by-the-glass options is a serious program for any city, let alone one where most restaurants treat wine as an afterthought between the king crab and the whiskey. Someone here cares, and they want you to know it.
The list leans California and France with Oregon showing up in meaningful ways — Left Coast White Pinot Noir is a smart, curious inclusion that signals the buyers aren't just running down a distributor's greatest hits. Champagne gets real representation with Taittinger Brut La Française and Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut on the shelf, which is a genuine commitment at this latitude. Italy and Germany make appearances too, though we'd love to see those threads pulled further. The overall shape is solid-restaurant rather than destination-list, but for Anchorage, the ambition is undeniable.
Thirty pours by the glass is a number that earns respect — most restaurants in comparable markets top out at twelve and call it a day. The sparkling section alone pulls in J Vineyard Brut Cuvée 20 and Scharffenberger Brut alongside the Champagne house names, giving you real choice before the entree arrives. We'd like to see more rotation and a tighter editorial hand, but the raw count keeps options honest.
Scharffenberger Brut — $10–$18 by the glass (187ml)
Anderson Valley bubbles with real acid and apple-skin crispness — this is serious sparkling wine at a by-the-glass price that doesn't make you wince. Order it while you're deciding everything else.
Left Coast White Pinot Noir
Most tables will walk right past this and grab a Chardonnay. Don't. Oregon White Pinot is a genuinely unusual pour — pale, precise, and built for the halibut dishes that define this menu. It's the right call that almost nobody makes.
Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut
At $125 a bottle in a restaurant setting, you're paying for the orange label and the name recognition. Taittinger Brut La Française is sitting right next to it on the list, costs less, and is a more interesting glass of Champagne. The Clicquot is a reflexive order — there's no reason to make it here.
Left Coast White Pinot Noir + Alaskan Halibut
Wild halibut is lean, clean, and delicate — it needs a wine with precision rather than weight. White Pinot brings enough texture to hold up to the fish without steamrolling it, and the Oregon cool-climate acidity cuts right through any butter or cream in the preparation.
🎲 The Bottom Line
Kinley's is the most serious wine program in Anchorage by a meaningful margin, and that deserves credit even when the markups occasionally test your goodwill. If you're eating here, drink the wine — just let someone point you toward the Left Coast bottle and away from the Clicquot reflex.
Downtown · Anchorage · New American
The Marx Brothers Café is the kind of place that makes you reconsider your assumptions about where serious wine lives. In a historic Anchorage bungalow, they've built a list that would hold its own in San Francisco — and that earns every bit of the Wild Card badge.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
Downtown / G Street corridor · Anchorage · Wine Bar / Bistro
Crush earns its Wild Card badge not by being perfect, but by being genuinely surprising — a 600-bottle cellar and 40+ glass pours in Anchorage is an achievement worth acknowledging out loud. If you're passing through or living here, this is where you go when you actually care what's in your glass.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Proper
Girdwood · Anchorage · Winery Restaurant / Taproom
Bear Creek Winery Loft earns its Wild Card badge honestly — it's not trying to be a serious wine destination and doesn't need to be. If you're in Girdwood and you skip this in favor of a hotel bar pour, you've made a mistake you'll regret when you're back home explaining why you didn't try the rhubarb wine made in Alaska.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown · Anchorage · Modern Mexican / Latin Fusion
Tequila 61° is a genuinely fun downtown Anchorage spot — but the wine list is not the reason to come. Order the tequila, drink the margaritas, and if someone at the table insists on wine, steer them toward the Pinot Grigio and move on.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Midtown · Anchorage · Brazilian Steakhouse (Churrascaria)
Texas de Brazil Anchorage is a reliable enough wine stop if you calibrate expectations to match the format — this is a chain steakhouse, not a wine destination, and the list behaves accordingly. Grab the Catena, eat a lot of picanha, and don't overthink it.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Midtown / Spenard · Anchorage · Mexican / Pub / Pizza
Bear Tooth Grill is a legitimately great spot for beer, margaritas, pizza, and a movie — the wine list is just a formality. Order a craft beer, skip the wine entirely, and you'll have a fantastic time.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
MIA
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown Lodi · Lodi · New American
Zin Bistro is the rare restaurant that actually belongs in its wine region — it champions Lodi producers with conviction and gives old-vine Zinfandel the platform it deserves. If you've been sleeping on Lodi as a wine destination, dinner here is a fast education.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Daytona International Speedway Area · Daytona Beach · New American
Blue Flame is a legitimately surprising wine program wearing a racetrack disguise — not perfect, and hotel markups are real, but the ambition is there and the selection earns respect. If you're sleeping at The Daytona or just found yourself here, ignore the moonshine menu and go straight to the wine list.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Occasional
Acceptable
Downtown · Iowa City · New American
Hearth is a fine place to drink wine, not a destination to drink wine — the list is short, the markups are real, and the picks lean commercial. But that Tuesday half-price bottle deal changes the math entirely: come back midweek, grab the Rhône blend, and you're suddenly getting a great deal at a lively spot.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Seasonal Rotation
Acceptable
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