Mountain altitude, serious wine attitude
Beaver Creek · Vail · Upscale American / Contemporary Fine Dining · Visit Website ↗
Updated August 2026
Reviewed July 29, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Splendido at the Chateau’s wine list and gave it The Rager — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The wine list at Splendido lands with the same weight as the room itself — live piano, stone fireplace, and a 400-plus label book that means business. This isn't a ski resort wine list padded with Meiomi and Santa Margherita; someone with actual taste built this. The moment you sit down, you know the wine program is taken seriously here.
Napa and Burgundy are the twin anchors, with Bordeaux and Tuscany providing serious depth on the back pages. The California side reads like a greatest hits of the Napa establishment — Opus One, Stag's Leap Cask 23, Caymus Special Selection, Far Niente, Jordan, Silver Oak, Chateau Montelena — all present and accounted for. The Rhône and Domaine Drouhin Oregon selections suggest whoever curates this list isn't just coast-hugging, though adventurous drinkers wanting natural wine or left-field producers will find slim pickings. At 400–600 labels, the depth is real, but the vision skews classic and collector-friendly rather than exploratory.
Fifteen to twenty-five pours by the glass is a generous program for a mountain resort, and at $18–$45 a pour, the ceiling is high but so is the quality floor. Expect the glass list to mirror the bottle list's classics-forward ethos — this is not the place to find a skin-contact Slovenian orange wine by the glass, and that's fine. Rotation appears limited, but what's there is well-chosen and properly served.
Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon — $60
Jordan sits at the approachable end of the bottle list and consistently punches above its price point — structured, polished Sonoma Cab that doesn't make you feel like you're settling just because you're not dropping $200.
Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir
In a room full of Napa Cab hunters and Burgundy trophy seekers, Drouhin Oregon gets overlooked. It shouldn't — it's one of the most serious Pinot Noir producers in the Pacific Northwest, with genuine Burgundian DNA, and it won't vaporize your wallet the way the French originals will.
Caymus Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon
Caymus Special Selection is a perfectly fine wine, but at a resort with 4x markup potential it becomes an expensive comfort blanket. It's the wine people order when they recognize the name, not because it's the best value in the room — and at this address, you can do better for the money.
Chateau Montelena Chardonnay + Pan-seared scallops
Montelena's Chardonnay is restrained and mineral where other California whites go buttery and broad — that tension cuts right through the sweetness of seared scallops without steamrolling the dish. It's the kind of pairing the sommelier here will probably suggest anyway, and they'll be right.
The Bottom Line
Splendido is the rare mountain resort where the wine list actually justifies the altitude premium — deep, classically curated, and properly staffed. The markups are steep (this is Beaver Creek, not Boulder), but if you're already spending $50 on an entrée next to a fireplace with a piano player, you're not here for deals — and this list will absolutely deliver.
· Vail · Gastropub
Here's the one concrete reason to pay attention to Capitol Public House's wine program: Wednesday half-price bottles. That single policy can turn an unremarkable list into a genuinely good deal. If you're a local in Eagle or passing through on a Wednesday, plan accordingly — even a middle-of-the-road bottle at half price is worth the stop. For everything else, manage expectations and let the whiskey bar do the talking.
Crowd Pleasers
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Occasional
Acceptable
· Vail · Latin-inspired small plates
Barriosocial is doing something genuinely unexpected in Vail: a wine list that reflects the food's Iberian DNA instead of defaulting to crowd-pleasing New World reds and overpriced Champagne by the bottle. The by-the-glass program alone — 20 options, fair pricing, real producers — is worth the visit. If you're eating in the mountains and actually care what's in your glass, this is the room.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Hotel Bar & New American
The Lobby Bar is fine — and in Vail, fine is doing a lot of heavy lifting. The list is short, static, and priced for people who just got off the mountain and aren't reading the bill too closely. If you're here, order the Grochau Pinot and call it a night; don't come looking for discovery.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Italian
La Nonna is an Italian restaurant in a ski resort town that somehow assembled one of the more thoughtful grower Champagne lists in Colorado — and that's genuinely worth acknowledging. Markups run steep across the board, which is par for the Vail course, but if you order smart (Mignon, Larmandier-Bernier, the Correggia sparkler), you'll drink better than almost anywhere on the mountain. Come for the pasta, stay for the bubbles.
Surprising Depth
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · New American
Larkspur has the bones of a Reliable — a thoughtful regional spread, a polished dining room, and a kitchen putting out serious plates like the Creekstone Farms strip loin and Ahi tuna crudo that deserve equally serious wine. We just don't have enough list detail to hand you a confident pick or warn you off a specific bottle. If you're heading here, ask the server what's drinking well right now and set a firm price ceiling before you open the book — Vail markups are real and they are not shy.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Steakhouse
Russell's isn't trying to be a wine destination and doesn't need to be — but the list is better than the room probably demands. Fair pricing, a genuine global reach, and twenty pours by the glass make this a steakhouse wine program worth engaging with. Order the Fincas de Ganuza, skip the Laurent Perrier, and leave the mountain resort markup where it belongs: on the cocktail list.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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