Aris
Clarksville's Sexiest Wine List Just Got Serious
Clarksville · Austin · Mediterranean, Steakhouse · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed April 9, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
The list lands with the same confidence as the room — terracotta walls, candlelight, and a wine program that clearly has a point of view. Three hundred to five hundred bottles deep, anchored in California, France, and Italy, this is not a list someone assembled by calling the first distributor who picked up the phone. Wine Spectator handed them a Best of Award of Excellence in 2025, and honestly, the list earns it.
Selection Deep Dive
California gets the headline treatment — Caymus, Opus One, Silver Oak Alexander Valley, Dominus, and Kistler all show up, which tells you the kitchen and the cellar are both thinking about big, food-forward reds and whites. France holds its own with Chateau Lynch-Bages and Chateau Margaux on the Bordeaux side and Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet representing Burgundy's white game. Italy is the quiet overachiever here: Gaja Barbaresco, Sassicaia, and Antinori Tignanello together in one list is a minor flex. The gap is anything outside these three regions — if you're hunting for Rhône, Iberian, or Southern Hemisphere bottles, you may be on your own.
By the Glass
Twenty to thirty-five by-the-glass options is an ambitious pour program, and with Derek Mizell on staff as sommelier, there's at least one person in the building who should be curating it with intention rather than just defaulting to what moves. We'd want to see more rotation and some adventurous pours mixed into what is likely a crowd-pleasing glass lineup, but the sheer volume of options means you're not stuck choosing between two sad Chardonnays.
Silver Oak Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon — $120–$150 (estimated bottle range)
In a list that goes deep into Napa and beyond, Silver Oak Alexander Valley is the Goldilocks pick — recognizable enough that you feel good ordering it, serious enough that it holds up against dry-aged beef, and priced below the full Napa tier. It's the bottle that works hardest for the money in this room.
Louis Jadot Puligny-Montrachet
Everyone at Aris is eyeing the steaks and reaching for Cabernet. Meanwhile, Puligny-Montrachet is sitting there ready to do something spectacular with the fresh fish and vegetable-forward dishes on the menu. Jadot's version is a reliable, elegant expression of white Burgundy — and in a steakhouse context, it's practically invisible on the order sheet, which means your table gets to feel smart.
Caymus Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
Look, Caymus is fine. But it's also on every steakhouse list in America, marked up to the moon, and you can find it at a wine shop for a fraction of what you'll pay here. With Dominus and Chateau Lynch-Bages on the same list, spending your money on Caymus is like going to a great record store and buying a greatest hits compilation.
Antinori Tignanello + Prime Dry-Aged Steak (tableside sliced)
Tignanello is a Super Tuscan built on Sangiovese with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc in the blend — structured, dark-fruited, with enough acid to cut through fat and enough muscle to match the intensity of dry-aged beef. The tableside presentation of the steak deserves a wine with some theater to it, and Tignanello delivers.
🔥 The Bottom Line
Aris is the rare Austin steakhouse where the wine list is as considered as the beef program — an anchored, deep cellar with real Italian and French range, a sommelier who can guide you through it, and a room that makes drinking well feel like the whole point. The markups aren't shy, but if you pick smart, you'll leave impressed.
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