Foraged plates meet serious Old World bottles
Capitol Hill · Seattle · Northwest Foraged/Seasonal American · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed April 11, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Sitka and Spruce’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Walking into the Melrose Market space, the wine list feels like it was curated by someone who actually eats the food here — there's intention behind every page. It's not long, but it doesn't need to be. The room already has a point of view, and the list follows it.
At 80-120 bottles, this isn't a deep cellar situation, but what's here earns its spot. The list leans into two lanes with confidence: Champagne from small growers and Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, which happen to be exactly the two regions that make sense for hyper-seasonal Pacific Northwest cooking. The Waris-Hubert 'Dosage Zero' Côte des Blancs is a standout — grower Champagne at a restaurant that could easily just stock Veuve and call it a day. The Johan Vineyards 2014 Willamette Valley Pinot shows they're not just buying regional for the sake of it; that's a thoughtful, older vintage that took patience to keep on the list.
Ten to eighteen pours by the glass is a solid range for a room this size, and the sommelier presence means the selections aren't just whatever the distributor pushed that month. Expect the glass program to reflect the same Old World lean and local Oregon thread as the bottle list — this isn't a Chardonnay-and-Cab-by-the-glass situation.
2014 Johan Vineyards Willamette Valley Pinot Noir — null
A 2014 from Johan Vineyards on a restaurant list is the kind of find that justifies the trip. Johan farms biodynamically in the Van Duzer Corridor, and a wine this age has shed any rough edges — you're getting Pinot that's earned its complexity. Price unknown from our data, but the vintage and producer alone signal strong value relative to what it'd cost to track down retail.
Waris-Hubert 'Dosage Zero' Côte des Blancs Champagne
Most tables at Sitka and Spruce aren't ordering Champagne. That's a mistake. Waris-Hubert is a small grower in Avize, one of the grand cru villages of the Côte des Blancs, and the zero-dosage style is bone dry with laser-sharp acidity — tailor-made for the briny, foraged, acidic plates coming out of this kitchen.
Without full pricing data, we're not going to call out a specific bottle unfairly. What we will say: if you see anything generic or corporate-label on this list, that's your skip. The list is small enough that every bottle should be intentional — anything that looks like a filler pick probably is one.
Waris-Hubert 'Dosage Zero' Côte des Blancs Champagne + Roasted broccoli with anchovies
Zero-dosage Champagne has no added sugar, which means it's all tension and mineral drive. Against roasted broccoli with anchovies — salty, umami-heavy, slightly bitter — that acidity cuts through everything and resets your palate for the next bite. This is the kind of pairing that makes the food taste better and the wine taste better simultaneously.
The Bottom Line
Sitka and Spruce is a Wild Card in the best way: a hyper-seasonal small plates spot that happens to keep grower Champagne and aged Oregon Pinot on the list without making a big deal about it. Send a friend here and tell them to order something they can't pronounce.
Downtown · Seattle · Brazilian Churrascaria
The real headline here is the half-price South American bottles — available Monday through Thursday, all day, on bottles under $150 — which turns a polished steakhouse into a legitimately reasonable wine night. The list won't excite anyone who came for the wine, but if you came for the meat and want a solid regional bottle at a fair price, this deal is worth planning around.
Plays It Safe
Fair
Basic Stemmed
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Acceptable
Ballard · Seattle · Italian
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Downtown · Seattle · Pacific Northwest / New American
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Capitol Hill · Seattle · Italian
An all-Italian list that is easy to navigate: 11 wines by the glass from $13 to $30, a bottle list sorted by region, and $8 house wine during Apericena. Order the Soave at $13 or the $17 Kerner by the glass, or the Villa Venti Sangiovese with the tagliatelle al ragu, and confirm prices because the page says they are subject to change. This unrated guide covers the posted wine list, not service, storage or markups.
Central District · Seattle · Seafood
A mostly natural, mostly French bottle list that stretches from $60 Muscadet to a $455 Champagne, with a deep run of Jura, Savoie and Loire bottles. Start with the $60 Hautplanty Muscadet or the $72 Laurent Herlin Cabernet Franc, and ask about the list’s ◆ and ◉ key if you want help choosing between classic and wild. This unrated guide covers the posted drinks selection, not service, storage or markups.
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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