Pretty Room, Punishing Markups
Anchorage · Louisville · American · Visit Website ↗
Updated June 2026
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · March 21, 2026
RagingWine reviewed The Village Anchor’s wine list and gave it The Lazy List — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The room is genuinely lovely — stone walls, dark wood, red leather, the kind of place that makes you want to order a nice bottle. Then the wine list arrives and that mood evaporates fast. What you're looking at is a greatest-hits parade of grocery store recognizables dressed up in upscale-casual pricing.
The list reads like someone grabbed the top sellers off a Wine.com homepage and called it a program. You've got Whitehaven Sauv Blanc, La Crema Pinot Noir, Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay, Josh Cellars Cab — reliable crowd pleasers, sure, but there's no regional depth, no interesting producers, and nothing that would give a curious drinker a reason to explore. The Spanish section is a single Campo Viejo Tempranillo, which is a $12 supermarket bottle. There's no old-world focus, no local curiosity, no natural wine, no surprises anywhere on this list.
We don't have confirmed by-the-glass specifics, but given the bottle list is built almost entirely from mass-market brands, expect the pours to match. If the BTG options mirror the bottle program, you're looking at the same familiar faces — La Marca Prosecco, Josh Cab, Whitehaven — at prices that don't do you any favors.
Sonoma Cutrer Chardonnay — $50
At 67% over retail it's the least offensive markup on the list — still steep, but if you're going to drink here, this is the closest thing to fair value they offer. It's a known, reliable wine that actually justifies some of its price tag.
Mer Soleil Silver Unoaked Chardonnay
Most people skip past unoaked Chardonnay without a second look, but this one is clean, bright, and genuinely food-friendly. At 72% markup it's among the better deals on the list, and it won't fight with anything on the plate.
Campo Viejo Tempranillo
This is a $12 bottle of supermarket Tempranillo that The Village Anchor is selling for $40 — a 233% markup. That's not a wine program decision, that's just taking advantage of guests who aren't paying attention. Hard pass.
La Crema Pinot Noir + Hotter Brown
The pulled roasted chicken with cheddar-Parmesan Mornay sauce needs something with enough fruit to cut through the richness without overwhelming the dish. La Crema Pinot is soft, approachable, and plays well with cream-based sauces — it's the one pairing on this list that actually makes sense.
Wednesday — Half-price bottles of wine all night — the only time this list becomes genuinely worth ordering from.
The Bottom Line
Wednesday's half-price wine night is the only reason to think about wine here — at full price, these markups are hard to defend on a list that's all familiar labels and zero ambition. Come for the room and the Hotter Brown; order a cocktail unless it's Wednesday.
Louisville · Louisville · American, Seafood
Swizzle is a competent, California-focused wine program in a genuinely great room — sommelier Travis Mills keeps things running right, but the list plays it safe enough that adventurous drinkers will want to stick to what they know. Send a friend here for a solid steak-and-Cab night; just don't send them expecting to discover something new.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
NuLu · Louisville · Small Plates
Nouvelle is doing something genuinely interesting in Louisville: a thoughtful, French-forward wine program in a small plates format that rewards guests who actually read the list. We'd send a friend here without hesitation — and tell them to look past the Bollinger.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Springhurst · Louisville · American, European
Cuvée Wine Table is the best wine argument Louisville's suburbs have going for them — three somms, a serious-enough list, and fair pricing in a room that punches well above its strip mall address. Send a friend here without hesitation.
Solid Range
Fair
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Seasonal Rotation
Proper
Douglass Hills · Louisville · American, Contemporary, Southern-inspired
LouVino Douglass Hills is the kind of place where the wine list quietly outperforms the neighborhood's expectations — fair prices, real range, and a few genuinely smart picks hiding in plain sight. If you live nearby and haven't been treating it as your go-to wine night spot, you're leaving good bottles on the table.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
St. Matthews · Louisville · Contemporary American and Continental
211 Clover Lane isn't trying to be a wine destination, but it earns the Wild Card badge by caring more than it has to. Wednesday half-price nights alone make this worth bookmarking.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Seasonal Rotation
Acceptable
Frankfort Avenue · Louisville · Italian
Volare has the bones of a genuinely good wine program — serious Italian producers, a deep-enough list, and real by-the-glass options that reward curiosity. The markups on entry-level bottles drag it back from greatness, but if you know where to look, you can drink very well here.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Yountville · American
RH Yountville is a genuinely beautiful place to drink wine — the room earns that much on atmosphere alone, and the California-forward list will keep most guests happy without any friction. But in Yountville, where the competition includes some of the most serious wine programs in the country, 'happy without friction' isn't the same as memorable. Go for the experience, order confidently by region, and don't expect the list to surprise you.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Bakersfield · American
Yard House Bakersfield is a beer hall that happens to sell wine, and the list makes no effort to hide that. Markups are aggressive, selections are safe to the point of being anonymous, and the only reason to open a bottle here is if your table voted against another round of IPAs. If you're wine-focused, redirect your budget to the Jean-Luc Colombo Rosé by the glass and call it a night.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Yountville · American
The Kitchen at Priest Ranch is a one-winery show, and that's exactly the point. If you want to spend an evening exploring what a single Napa estate produces across whites, rosé, Zinfandel, Merlot, and multiple Cabernet expressions — including older large-format bottles — this is a genuinely interesting way to do it. Just don't come expecting breadth or outside discovery. Send a friend here if they love Priest Ranch or want to.
Plays It Safe
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Proper
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