The Capital Grille Chevy Chase

The wine list here arrives like a well-pressed suit — impressive on first glance, clearly expensive, and not particularly interested in surprising you. It's a 350-500 label book that leans hard into Napa Cabernet and prestige bottles, which makes sense when your dining room is full of expense accounts and power dinners. You know exactly what you're getting before you open it.

Napa Valley Cabernet is the obvious anchor — Stag's Leap 'Cask 23', Chateau Montelena, Nickel & Nickel, Jordan, Opus One — this is the Napa hall of fame and Capital Grille has a reserved table for all of them. Burgundy and Bordeaux get respectable representation, and there's a nod to Willamette Valley Pinot Noir for the Oregon crowd. What's missing is any real adventurousness: no natural wine, no esoteric regions, no 'how did this end up here' discoveries. It's a list built to impress clients, not to challenge anyone's palate.

With 15-25 by-the-glass options, there's enough to work with across a meal without committing to a bottle. Expect the usual suspects — a Chardonnay, a Cab, maybe a Pinot — at prices that reflect the zip code. The pours are generous and the glassware is proper, so at least when you're spending $22 a glass, it's going into something worth drinking out of.