The Pines Modern Steak House

Walking into The Pines, the wine list hits with the same polished confidence as the room — clean, modern, and clearly built to impress. At 200-400 selections anchored in California, Bordeaux, Champagne, Italy, and Burgundy, this is not a hotel restaurant phone-it-in list. Wine Spectator has handed out a Best of Award of Excellence here since 2022, and once you flip through the pages, you understand why.

The California backbone is strong and unsurprising for a steakhouse — Caymus, Silver Oak, Jordan, Stag's Leap, Kistler, Far Niente — all the reliable names that steak-night crowds know and trust. But the list earns its credential by going deeper: Opus One adds a prestige anchor, Château Margaux covers serious Bordeaux territory, and Antinori Super Tuscans give the Italian section some actual teeth. Louis Jadot represents Burgundy, which is a safe-not-sexy call, though it keeps the entry point accessible. The gaps are real — no obvious deep dive into Rhône, Champagne is solid but formulaic with Veuve and Bollinger, and adventurous drinkers looking for Ribera del Duero or Willamette Pinot will come up empty.

Twelve to twenty pours by the glass is a respectable program for a steakhouse of this caliber, and the range likely tracks the bottle list's California-forward identity. We'd expect the usual suspects — a Napa Cab, a buttery Chardonnay, maybe a Champagne option — though without a rotating program or documented glass pour specials, what's on the menu today is probably what was on it six months ago.