The Liberty Tavern – The Liberty's Bar

The wine list at The Liberty's Bar lands exactly where you'd want it for a busy Clarendon tavern — broad enough to satisfy a table with opinions, focused enough that you're not scrolling for ten minutes. It's not trying to be a wine bar, and that honesty actually works in its favor. The price points are accessible and the range covers enough ground to make a real choice rather than defaulting to the house pour.

The list leans pan-European with a healthy domestic backbone — you've got a Mirafiore Barolo from Serralunga d'Alba alongside a Pico Maccario Nizza Barbera, a Red Tail Ridge Riesling from the Finger Lakes, and a Red Newt Cabernet Franc from the same region. The restaurant even has a house Pinot Noir under its own label. What genuinely surprises is the fortified and dessert wine section: Blandy's Bual Madeira, a Gonzalez Byass Oloroso, two expressions of Pedro Ximenez and Cream Sherry, plus Portal Tawny at 10 and 20 years — that's not something you typically find at a gastropub in Clarendon. The Château de Crézancy Sancerre and Peitan Albariño round out the whites with solid, crowd-pleasing credibility. Gaps exist — no serious Burgundy, no German Riesling depth — but for what this place is, the range punches above its weight.

Glass pours run $12–$20, with options like the Beatrice Pinot Grigio at $12, the Château de Crézancy Sancerre at $20, the Mirafiore Barolo at $20, and Roederer Estate Brut at $20. That's a genuinely strong pour-by-the-glass lineup — getting a Barolo or an Anderson Valley Brut by the glass at $20 in a neighborhood tavern is not nothing. The list doesn't appear to rotate frequently, but the anchors are well-chosen.