Grappa

You walk into Grappa's candlelit farmhouse dining room on Historic Main Street and the wine list arrives looking the part — leather-bound, serious, aspirational. Flip it open and the Napa cab section hits you like a chairlift you didn't ask to get on. It's a lot of big reds, a lot of big prices, and not a whole lot of surprise.

Ninety-five labels sounds like a real list until you notice that the gravity is almost entirely pulled toward Napa Cabernet and a handful of Italian trophy bottles — Gaja Barbaresco, Sassicaia, Solaia, Brunello di Montalcino. The Italian presence is there, but it reads more like a greatest hits display case than a curated exploration of the boot. There's a Domaine Drouhin Dundee Hills Pinot Noir and a Merry Edwards Klopp Ranch Pinot from Russian River, which is nice, but these feel like tokens. Natural wine, Southern Italy, anything below the Brunello-and-Barolo prestige tier? Largely absent.

Sixteen by-the-glass options give you genuine range to work with — Mumm Brut, Mer Soleil Chardonnay, a Gaja Ca'Marcanda Promis, and even the Philip Togni Tanbark Hill Cab by the pour at $42. The Traversa Canova Ciabot Barbaresco Riserva 2009 at $50 a glass is a legitimately interesting option if you're in the splurge mood. That said, the program feels static — don't expect rotating pours or anything that suggests someone's actively tinkering with the list.