Le Tour Evanston

You open this list expecting a safe suburban bistro wine card and instead find Francine Bachelier Chablis Premier Cru and Château La Nerthe Châteauneuf-du-Pape staring back at you. For Evanston, this is punching several weight classes above the norm. The French focus is deliberate and mostly well-executed — this list was clearly curated by someone who actually drinks wine.

Forty-six labels sounds modest, but the depth-per-bottle ratio here is genuinely impressive. France dominates — Loire shows up twice via Sancerre (both Patrick Noël and Moreux Les Bourrants), Burgundy gets proper representation with Jacques Girardin's Santenay Clos Rousseau Premier Cru, and the Rhône gets a quality double dip between Domaine de Beaurenard and Château La Nerthe. Alsace earns its own lane with Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer and two Crémants, which we don't see often enough. The California section is thin — Quilt and Justin Isosceles are crowd-pleasers, not discoveries — and Port is oddly overrepresented with three separate labels, which feels like a personal obsession rather than a strategic program.

Fourteen pours by the glass is generous for a 46-bottle list, and the range is real — you can go Crémant, rosé, Côtes du Rhône, or Cava without feeling railroaded into boring choices. Glass prices run $12 to $21, which is fair at the low end and slightly aggressive at the top. We'd love to see the Zind-Humbrecht or the Chablis Premier Cru make it onto the glass list, but for now the Paul Jaboulet Parallèle 45 Côtes du Rhône at $48 a bottle is the best everyday anchor.