Champagne Obsession Dressed in Fine Dining
· Los Angeles · French tasting menu · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · September 29, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Mélisse’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The wine list at Mélisse opens like a love letter to prestige Champagne — and almost nothing else. Seventy-eight labels sounds substantial until you realize a significant chunk of that real estate is dedicated to Krug in multiple editions, Dom Pérignon across multiple vintages, and Philipponnat Clos des Goisses going back to 2009. This is a list with a clear point of view, for better and for worse.
If you came for vertical depth in prestige Champagne, Mélisse delivers — four vintages of Philipponnat Clos des Goisses, three editions of Krug including a vintage 2004, Cristal spanning 2002 through 2015, and Salon Blanc de Blancs 2013 rounding out a serious blanc de blancs corner. What the list doesn't offer is breadth outside that prestige bubble: the sourced data shows a tight regional focus almost entirely within high-end Champagne and French sparkling, with no evidence of meaningful still wine depth, grower Champagnes, or representation from Burgundy, Rhône, or anywhere beyond France. At 78 labels, you'd expect more range; instead, this reads like a beverage program built to complement a tasting menu without challenging it.
No by-the-glass options are documented in the available data. At a tasting menu format like Mélisse, this is fairly standard — you're expected to commit to a bottle or opt for a wine pairing, not graze the list by the pour.
The Bottom Line
Mélisse is a destination for Champagne completists willing to pay fine dining prices for the privilege of choosing between four Philipponnat vintages or three Krug editions in a single sitting. But if you're hoping for a wine list that matches the ambition of a French tasting menu — with depth across regions and styles — the narrowness here will leave you wanting. Come for the bubbles, manage your expectations for everything else.
· Los Angeles · New American Wine Bar
Bar Chelou is the rare LA wine bar that actually commits to a point of view — weird grapes, honest prices, producers you'll Google mid-dinner. The BTG range alone makes it worth a stop, and the bottle list rewards the curious without punishing the budget. If you like knowing exactly what you're getting, go somewhere else. If you like being pleasantly confused, pull up a stool.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Los Feliz · Los Angeles · New American and Middle Eastern
Kismet earns its Wild Card badge because it's doing something genuinely interesting with its wine program inside a casual Los Feliz storefront — Slovenia and natural wine in a room full of freekeh fritters and Persian-style rice is a specific point of view, and we respect it. We can't quote you bottle prices or name specific pours from here, so go in curious, ask the staff what's on, and trust that someone in that room knows what they're talking about.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Los Angeles · French Mediterranean
The Little Door is punching above its weight for a 27-bottle list — the Old World focus is genuine, the by-the-glass breadth is impressive, and the pricing mostly plays fair. We'd send a friend here specifically to drink by the glass and work through the more offbeat picks like the Ruche or the Forge Cellars Riesling.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Los Angeles · Pizza and Natural Wine
Pizzeria Sei earns its Wild Card badge because it's doing something genuinely uncommon: running a natural-wine program inside a pizza-obsessed, no-frills room on Pico Blvd without making either the pizza or the wine feel like an afterthought. We can't give you specific bottle recommendations until we get a verified list in hand, but if you trust the kitchen — and most people do — extending that trust to the wine program is a reasonable bet.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Beverly Hills · Los Angeles · Steakhouse
What we can document at Mastro's Beverly Hills is a narrow, Napa-centric selection that plays zero risk and offers zero surprise — which is a defensible choice for a power-steakhouse crowd, but not one we can enthusiastically endorse to wine lovers. The seven wines on record are all from a single event page, so the full list is almost certainly broader; but until we have more to work with, our honest advice is to know what you want before you sit down, because the list isn't going to inspire you.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Occasional
Acceptable
· Los Angeles · Italian
Osteria La Buca is running one of the more quietly ambitious wine lists in LA — fair prices, genuine Italian depth, and enough natural and obscure producers to keep things interesting across 54 bottles. If you care about what's in your glass and want an Italian restaurant that doesn't treat wine as an afterthought, this is worth your attention.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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