Hotel Wine Done Surprisingly Right
Downtown · Seattle · Contemporary American · Visit Website ↗
Updated June 2026
Reviewed April 14, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed The George Restaurant’s wine list and gave it The Reliable — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Walking into a Fairmont hotel restaurant, you brace for the usual shakedown — inflated prices on wines you could grab at any grocery store. The George flips that script almost immediately. The list isn't trying to impress wine nerds, but the pricing is genuinely hard to argue with.
About 25 labels cover the bases you'd expect — California, Italy, Pacific Northwest, New Zealand, a nod to France and Argentina — without venturing anywhere adventurous. Duckhorn and The Prisoner anchor the California side, which tells you the audience here skews toward recognizable names over discovery. There's no deep bench on Burgundy or Rhône, no natural wine rabbit hole, no single-vineyard anything to get excited about. But within its lane, the list is coherent and competently assembled, which is more than you can say for most hotel dining rooms.
The by-the-glass program is the real story here, running $10–$25 and covering enough ground to make ordering a bottle feel almost unnecessary. Specific counts aren't published, but the spread includes sparkling, white, red, and everything in between. The pricing relative to retail on several pours is legitimately shocking for a Fairmont property.
Duckhorn Chardonnay — $22
Retail on this bottle sits around $40, and they're pouring it by the glass at $22. That's essentially buying a glass of a $40 wine for the price most places charge for house Chardonnay. It's the clearest win on the list.
Mer Soleil Chardonnay
At $12 a glass for a wine that retails around $20, this Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay is flying under the radar next to flashier names on the list. Richer and more textured than the Pinot Grigio crowd typically expects, and priced like they forgot to check retail.
Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio
It's the one glass on the list where the markup actually runs the wrong direction — $21 for a wine you can grab for $15 at any wine shop. Santa Margarita is fine, but it's not $21-a-glass fine, especially when the Maso Canali Pinot Grigio is sitting right there at $12.
The Prisoner Red Blend + Grilled Ribeye
The Prisoner's dark fruit and plush, slightly jammy profile is built for something with a char on it. A grilled ribeye gives the wine something substantial to push against, and at $25 a glass — against a $40 retail price — you're eating well on both counts.
The Bottom Line
The George won't win any awards for adventurous curation, but the pricing is genuinely generous for a hotel restaurant of this caliber — several glasses are at or below what you'd pay at retail. Send a friend here if they want something familiar and well-priced; just don't send them expecting to discover anything new.
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
Rotating Cast
Active Program
Acceptable
Ballard · Seattle · Italian
A short, Italian-leaning list with most of its bottles in the Old World red section. Order the $11 Montepulciano by the glass, or the $69 Travaglini Gattinara if you want to splurge a little, and confirm prices on the day. This unrated guide covers the posted wine menus, not service, storage or markups.
Downtown · Seattle · Pacific Northwest / New American
A hotel wine list with a Pacific Northwest page up front, Champagne, Bordeaux and Italian sections behind it, and a separate glass list on the drink menu. Start with the $12 Treveri Blanc de Blancs at happy hour or the Mark Ryan 'Goldfinch Tavern Red Blend', and check the current list before you go, since the restaurant says menus are subject to change. This unrated guide covers the posted wine list and drink menu, not service, storage or markups.
Lake Union · Seattle · Steakhouse
A long, Northwest-first steakhouse list with plenty of bottles under $100 as well as a $300-to-$550 tier of Leonetti and Quilceda Creek Cabernets. Start with the $20 Five Star Cellars “Prime” Cabernet by the glass, or the same wine at $55 on the bottle pages, and confirm prices because the list says vintages and availability change. This unrated guide covers the posted wine list, not service, storage or markups.
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.
Vinings · Atlanta · Contemporary American
So has a wine list built to please a suburban dinner crowd without ruffling any feathers, and it largely succeeds at that narrow goal. The markup is real — most bottles sit at 3–4x retail — but the by-the-glass breadth gives you options to keep the tab reasonable. If you're a wine-first diner, this isn't your destination; if you're here for the scene and the food, you'll find something perfectly fine to drink.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Toledo · Contemporary American
Sabira has built something genuinely worth noticing for Toledo: a compact, mostly European list that takes real swings with appellations like Grasparossa di Castelvetro and Vernaccia di San Gimignano. Pricing data isn't available to us, and the BTG program is unclear — so call ahead or ask on arrival. If the staff knows this list as well as whoever curated it seems to, this is an easy recommendation for anyone tired of the same regional Chardonnay-and-Cab circuit.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown Sarasota · Sarasota · Contemporary American
A one-page list that mixes Greek, Italian and French bottles with Cristal, Taittinger and Laurent-Perrier Champagnes, and posts many prices as two unlabeled numbers. Start with the Gai'a Assyrtiko (70 / 17) alongside the wood-fired octopus, or take the Les Girelles Picpoul (48 / 12) on a Tuesday, when the list says bottles at $99 and less are half off (bubbles and Champagne excluded). This unrated guide covers the posted wine list, not service, storage or markups, and the list carries no printed date, so confirm current availability and ask which number is the glass.
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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