The Stonehouse Restaurant

You open the wine list at The Stonehouse expecting a standard Santa Barbara Pinot-heavy spread and instead find yourself staring at a Madeira bottled during the Grover Cleveland administration. This list is not trying to please everyone — it is curated with a singular, almost obsessive focus on aged fortified and dessert wines that you simply do not encounter at a restaurant like this. It stops you mid-sentence.

The list is small — 27 labels — but every one of them feels deliberate. The backbone is an extraordinary collection of D'Oliveira and Graham's Madeiras stretching back to 1977, alongside a Port lineup that runs from Dow's 10 Year Tawny all the way to a Taylor Fladgate Single Harvest 1896. Sauternes gets serious representation with both Château Les Justices and a 2006 Château d'Yquem, while Tokaji fans will find Royal Tokaji's Nyulászó 6 Puttonyos Aszú and Essencia side by side — a rare pairing. The one notable gap is any meaningful dry table wine presence; if you want a Burgundy or a Barolo with dinner, you're largely out of luck.

Twenty-four of the 27 labels are available by the glass, which is remarkable given what's on this list — pouring a 1882 Graham's Ne Oublie by the glass is not something most restaurants would dare to do. Prices range from $15 to $650 per glass, so the range is genuinely massive. The program rewards curiosity: you can build a tasting flight through decades of Madeira history without committing to a full bottle.