The Dorset Inn

Walking into the Dorset Inn's candlelit dining room, you half expect the wine list to be printed on parchment. It's not, but it does feel comfortably frozen in time — a tight California-focused selection that suits the room without challenging anyone sitting in it. The Award of Excellence it's held since 2008 is well-earned in the sense that everything here is done with care, even if the ambition is modest.

The list runs 100-150 bottles and leans hard into California — Jordan and Stag's Leap anchor the Cabernet side, Cakebread and Sonoma-Cutrer hold down Chardonnay, and Duckhorn shows up as the reliable Merlot option. You're not finding any surprises: no Willamette Pinot, no Loire whites, no natural wine in sight. What you get is a list curated for the guest who knows what they like and doesn't want to be challenged — which, for a historic Vermont inn, is probably exactly right. The gaps are real, but so is the competence.

Ten to sixteen options by the glass is a reasonable spread for a room this size, and the California anchors — Sonoma-Cutrer Russian River Ranches Chardonnay and likely a Jordan pour — cover the most-ordered territory well. Don't expect a rotating program or anything adventurous; this is a set-it-and-forget-it glass lineup that changes with the menu seasons at best.