Avra Estiatorio

The wine list at Avra lands like a confident handshake — thick, organized, and unapologetically Greek-forward before pivoting into serious French and Italian territory. This is not a restaurant that slapped together a wine list as an afterthought between marble deliveries. Between the white tablecloths and the smell of fresh fish, you're holding something that earned its Best of Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator for a reason.

Four hundred to six hundred selections is a big room, and Avra fills it well. The Greek section alone could carry this list — Domaine Sigalas Assyrtiko, Hatzidakis Winery Santorini, Gaia Thalassitis, Gerovassiliou Malagousia, and both Kir-Yianni and Alpha Estate Xinomavro give you a proper education in Greek wine without feeling like a lecture. Then the list pivots hard into Burgundy with names like Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet and Louis Jadot, Champagne courtesy of Krug and Bollinger, Tuscany with Antinori, and California via Ridge Vineyards. The gaps are minor — you're not getting deep South American or German coverage — but for this cuisine and this room, the list is doing exactly what it should.

Twenty to thirty-five pours by the glass is an ambitious program, and Avra commits. Expect Greek whites to anchor the selection — Assyrtiko and Malagousia show up and they should — alongside enough French and Italian representation to keep the table happy regardless of what hits the fish course. Sommelier Sasha Brumfield runs the floor, and that matters: pours rotate thoughtfully rather than sitting stale.