Island Vintage Wine Bar

A wine bar inside a shopping center on Kalakaua Avenue sounds like a trap, and yet — Island Vintage earns its Wine Spectator Award of Excellence by actually trying. The open-air setting is breezy and casual, the list is longer than you'd expect, and nobody's pretending this is Napa.

The list runs 150-250 bottles with a clear lean toward France and California, which tracks with the Wine Spectator recognition. You'll find Louis Jadot holding down the Burgundy section and Sonoma-Cutrer representing Russian River Chardonnay with some credibility. The Jordan Cab and Domaine Drouhin Oregon Pinot Noir are solid picks that play well above the tourist-trap baseline you'd normally expect from a mall wine bar in Waikiki. Gaps exist — don't come looking for Rhône, Ribera del Duero, or anything remotely adventurous below the equator.

Twenty to thirty-five pours by the glass is genuinely impressive for this context, and the range covers enough ground to keep a table of mixed drinkers happy. Glasses run $12-$25, which stings a little given the Hawaii premium already baked into everything on the island. The Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc anchors the approachable end; the Drouhin Pinot Noir is the move if you're spending up.