Michael's on the Hill

You're on Route 100 in the middle of Vermont countryside, and somehow the wine list reads like it belongs in a Boston fine dining room. Two hundred-plus bottles anchored by Burgundy and Bordeaux is not what you expect when you pull into a converted farmhouse. It sets a tone immediately — this place is serious about wine, even if the setting is quietly unpretentious.

The list leans hard into the Old World, with Burgundy and Bordeaux doing the heavy lifting alongside a sharp selection from Alsace and the Northern Rhône. Seeing Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet and Château Léoville-Barton St-Julien on the same list as Trimbach Riesling tells you whoever built this list has range and taste. Napa and Sonoma get their due with Kistler Chardonnay and Caymus Cab holding down the California flank for guests who won't travel far in their glass. The gaps are minor — South America, Iberia, and anything natural or low-intervention are essentially absent — but for a fine dining room in central Vermont, this is genuinely impressive depth.

Ten to fifteen options by the glass is a respectable spread for a restaurant this size, with prices running $14 to $28. We'd push the program to rotate more aggressively — a static BTG list at a place with this much bottle depth feels like a missed opportunity. That said, the quality floor is high enough that you're unlikely to get stuck with something forgettable.