Sherry and sangria doing serious work
· San Jose · Spanish / Peruvian · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · August 16, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Suspiro’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 Suspiro is short — 22 labels — but it earns its keep fast. You open the drinks menu expecting tourist sangria and walk into a genuine sherry program flanked by Txakoli and Priorat. That's not something you see every day in San Jose.
The backbone here is Iberian, and it's done with real care. The sherry section alone — Bodegas Tradición Amontillado VORS, Bodegas Barbadillo Manzanilla, Emilio Lustau Oloroso Don Nuño, and the Tradición Oloroso VORS — reads like someone actually knows what they're doing with fortified wines. Beyond that, you get Txomin Etxaniz Txakolina from Getaria, a Corpinnat from Can Descregut, and Olivier Rivière's Rayos Uva from Rioja — producers with genuine credibility. The California presence is light but not embarrassing, with the Mauritson Sauvignon Blanc and Alfaro Family A holding their own. The only real gap is depth in red — Sierra Cantabria Crianza and Coster Dels Olivers Priorat are solid anchors, but there's room for more.
Twenty-one of the 22 labels pour by the glass, which is nearly the entire list — a rare and generous move. The range runs from $9 for the Barbadillo Manzanilla up to $35 for the Tradición Amontillado VORS, giving you real optionality at every price point. The sherry pours by the glass are the main event here and the reason to visit.
Bodegas Barbadillo Manzanilla — $9/glass
Nine dollars for a properly sourced Manzanilla from one of Sanlúcar's most respected houses. This is the kind of wine that costs twice as much when someone figures out how to market it. Order it now.
Herència Altés Garnatxa Blanca 2024
Most people will scroll past this for something familiar, but Garnatxa Blanca from Terra Alta is worth your attention — textured, saline, and genuinely interesting at $13 a glass. It fits the Spanish-Peruvian kitchen perfectly.
Campfire Sangria
At $18 a glass, you're paying cocktail prices for a batched sangria when there's a $9 Manzanilla and a $13 Txakolina sitting right next to it. The sangria pitchers by the bottle make more sense if that's your vibe, but solo glass? Skip it.
Txomin Etxaniz Getariako Txakolina 2024 + Ceviche
Txakoli's high acid and light spritz were basically designed to cut through citrus-cured fish. The Peruvian side of this kitchen plays right into what this wine does naturally — it's a no-brainer.
The Bottom Line
Suspiro is punching well above its weight for a 22-label list in San Jose. The sherry program alone makes it worth a visit, and the by-the-glass breadth means you can explore without committing to a bottle.
· San Jose · Italian
A Bellagio is doing something right: a 65-bottle Italian-leaning list with 19 glass options, fair pricing, and enough regional Italian depth to make the wine order as interesting as the food order. Staff confidence and dish data are unknowns from where we sit, but the list itself is worth showing up for — especially if you let the Montecucco Sangiovese talk you into a second glass.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Jose · New American
Orchard City Kitchen's all-glass wine program is a smart move that forces the list to work harder — and mostly it does. The selection punches above its weight with picks from Talley, August West, Tablas Creek, and J. Lassalle sharing space with genuinely interesting European pours. If you're in San Jose and want to drink something more interesting than the usual Cab-or-Chardonnay binary, this list gives you real options.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Jose · Japanese
Ozumo pulls off something most restaurants don't bother attempting: a tight, curated by-the-glass program that actually reflects a point of view. The Loire and Burgundy presence alongside skin-contact Pinot Gris and volcanic Soave tells you someone made real choices here. If you're eating Japanese and want to drink something more interesting than the house Pinot Noir, this list delivers — especially in that $13–$19 range.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Jose · New American
Blossom & Bourbon's wine list is built for the broadest possible audience, and it delivers exactly that — comfortable, recognizable, inoffensive. If you're with a group and someone just wants a glass of Belle Glos Pinot Noir, this works. But there's little here that will surprise you or make you feel like the restaurant is working on your behalf as a wine drinker. Order the Pedroncelli Zinfandel if it's on the table, and temper expectations on value.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Jose · Italian
Pizza Antica is not trying to be a wine destination, which makes it more surprising that the list holds up this well. Eighteen thoughtful labels, full BTG access, fair pricing, and enough Italian regional depth to keep things interesting — the Viberti Barbera and the Graci Etna Rosato alone justify a closer look. If you're grabbing pizza in San Jose and want to drink something worth talking about, this list has you covered.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Woodside · San Jose · French-influenced New American
The Village Pub earns its Wild Card badge not because it's scrappy or unexpected in a dive-bar sense, but because a Michelin-starred wine program hiding behind the word 'pub' in a quiet Silicon Valley zip code is its own kind of surprise. Pricing will sting — the wine pairing alone is $125 — but if you're already committing to a $260 tasting menu, a sommelier-led pairing is probably the most defensible splurge on the bill. We'd send a serious wine-curious friend here for a special occasion, with the honest caveat that we'd love a closer look at the actual list before going all-in.
Deep & Eclectic
Steep
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
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