Vail's Secret Champagne Obsession Nobody Saw Coming
· Vail · Italian · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · September 28, 2026
RagingWine reviewed La Nonna Ristorante’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
You walk into a neighborhood Italian spot in a ski town expecting a wall of Chianti and a token Napa Cab, and then the wine list lands on the table with 131 labels and a Champagne section that reads like someone's very serious personal cellar. It's a genuine head-turn. This is not the list Vail told you to expect.
The Champagne program here is the whole story — and it's a good one. Grower Champagnes anchor the opening pages: Larmandier-Bernier, Christophe Mignon, Fresnet-Juillet, Benoit Dehu — these are names that show up at serious wine bars, not mountain-town pasta joints. The prestige tier runs deep too, with Krug 2006, Cristal 2014, Dom Pérignon 2013, and Taittinger Comtes de Champagne 2011 all present and accounted for. Beyond Champagne, the list covers Italian Piemonte reds and some American whites, plus intriguing Italian sparklers like the Matteo Correggia 'Severina' and Deltetto 'Rosé de Noirs' — a sign someone in the building actually thinks about what goes with the food. The gaps are real though: if you came for a deep Barolo or Brunello list to match the Italian kitchen, you may leave wanting.
By-the-glass options aren't documented in the available data, so we can't tell you what's pouring nightly or how often it rotates. Given the bottle list's ambition, we'd hope for at least a grower Champagne option by the glass — but that's hope, not fact.
The Bottom Line
La Nonna is an Italian restaurant in a ski resort town that somehow assembled one of the more thoughtful grower Champagne lists in Colorado — and that's genuinely worth acknowledging. Markups run steep across the board, which is par for the Vail course, but if you order smart (Mignon, Larmandier-Bernier, the Correggia sparkler), you'll drink better than almost anywhere on the mountain. Come for the pasta, stay for the bubbles.
· Vail · Hotel Bar & New American
The Lobby Bar is fine — and in Vail, fine is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The list is short, static, and priced for people who just got off the mountain and aren't reading the bill too closely. If you're here, order the Grochau Pinot and call it a night; don't come looking for discovery.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · New American
Larkspur has the bones of a Reliable — a thoughtful regional spread, a polished dining room, and a kitchen putting out serious plates like the Creekstone Farms strip loin and Ahi tuna crudo that deserve equally serious wine. We just don't have enough list detail to hand you a confident pick or warn you off a specific bottle. If you're heading here, ask the server what's drinking well right now and set a firm price ceiling before you open the book — Vail markups are real and they are not shy.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Steakhouse
Russell's isn't trying to be a wine destination and doesn't need to be — but the list is better than the room probably demands. Fair pricing, a genuine global reach, and twenty pours by the glass make this a steakhouse wine program worth engaging with. Order the Fincas de Ganuza, skip the Laurent Perrier, and leave the mountain resort markup where it belongs: on the cocktail list.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · French
La Tour is not trying to be everything to everyone — it's a French restaurant in Vail that has quietly built one of the more credible white Burgundy lists in Colorado. The pricing is fair by resort standards, the selection has genuine depth from Chablis through Meursault, and there are a few bottles here that would turn heads in a serious wine city. If Chardonnay is your thing, this list is worth your time. If it's not, order the cocktails.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · French
The Left Bank is a legitimately compelling wine destination for anyone who loves Champagne and grower producers — finding Bérêche & Fils 'Le Cran' or Larmandier-Bernier 'Longitude' on a list in Vail is not nothing. Markups are real and the lack of confirmed BTG options means you're probably committing to a bottle, but if that bottle is the Drappier or the Bourdy Crémant, you'll leave happy.
Small but Thoughtful
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · New American
Harvest clears the bar that most ski town wine lists don't even bother approaching — there are real producers, genuine regional diversity, and a by-the-glass program with actual depth. Markups skew steep, as expected in Vail, but the J.L. Chave and the Madeira show that someone on staff is paying attention. If you're eating here, don't default to whatever's loudest on the list — dig into the by-the-glass section and you'll be rewarded.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Glendale · Italian
Lil' Capo isn't a wine destination — it's a pizza destination with wine available, which is exactly what it should be. If you're grabbing a pie before a Westgate event and want something in a glass that won't embarrass the food, the Italian-leaning list does its job without asking too much of you or your wallet.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Moab · Italian
Pasta Jay's wine list is a list in the most technical sense — it has wines on it, they cost money, you can order them. But with no whites, no rosé, steep markups on grocery-tier labels, and a selection that ignores most of Italy's wine country, it's hard to recommend anyone spend real money here on wine. Order the pasta, drink water, and save the bottle for somewhere that actually cares.
Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Gatlinburg · Italian
A five-bottle wine list at an Italian restaurant with zero Italian wines on it is not a wine program — it's a placeholder. If you're in Gatlinburg and wine matters to you tonight, this isn't your stop. The October wine dinner series is genuinely interesting and worth watching, but the everyday list doesn't give us enough to recommend making wine a priority here.
Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Occasional
Acceptable
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