Proudfoot & Bird

Walking into Proudfoot & Bird inside Hotel Fort Des Moines, the room does a lot of the heavy lifting — marble details, restored ceilings, the kind of bones that make you want to order something serious. The wine list arrives and it holds its own for Des Moines: 80-plus bottles, a respectable by-the-glass spread, and a California-forward identity that's earned this room a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence since 2022. It won't shock you, but it won't embarrass you either.

The list leans hard into California, which tracks for an upscale hotel restaurant leaning on familiarity and crowd appeal. Expect the kind of lineup that prioritizes recognizable names over discovery — Napa Cabs, Central Coast Chardonnays, a Sonoma Pinot or two. There's breadth in the sense that most categories are covered, but depth is another story; you're not finding grower Champagne or funky Jura whites here. The Wine Spectator credential suggests the list is curated with some intention, but the California-only comfort zone keeps it from pushing into genuinely exciting territory.

Ten to sixteen options by the glass is a solid count for this market, and the format works well for a hotel dining room where guests often aren't ordering full bottles. The range likely mirrors the bottle list — California-heavy, with a few token international stopgaps. Whether the pours rotate with any intention or just sit static season to season is the real question, and the evidence points toward the latter.