Makoto
Omakase Vibes, Serious French and California Muscle
Miami Beach · Miami Beach · Japanese
Reviewed April 7, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
Walking into Makoto's oceanfront dining room, the last thing you expect is a wine list that could hold its own at a fine dining destination twice the price. The list is thick — 350 to 500 bottles deep — and skews hard toward France and California with the kind of producer names that make you sit up straighter. This is not a sushi spot that threw some Sancerre on a laminated card.
Selection Deep Dive
Burgundy is the clear obsession here: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Leroy anchor the prestige end while Jadot provides accessible entry points, and the Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet fills the white Burgundy gap at $95 — reasonable for this neighborhood. Bordeaux gets serious attention with Château Margaux 2019 at $750 and Château Lynch-Bages in the mix, while California shows up with Opus One, Schrader Old Sparky, Kistler, and Screaming Eagle for those who want to spend like it's 2007. Champagne lovers aren't forgotten either — Krug and Louis Roederer Cristal are on the list, which signals that whoever built this program was thinking about celebratory occasions in a place people come to celebrate. The gap is anything outside France and California: if you're hunting for Italian depth beyond Sassicaia or looking for natural wine, you're in the wrong room.
By the Glass
With 20 to 35 by-the-glass options, this is one of the stronger glass programs you'll find at a Japanese restaurant in Miami. The range appears to track the bottle list's France and California focus, giving you real access to quality without committing to a full bottle over raw fish. Rotation details are thin, but the volume of options alone suggests more than the usual four-wine-by-the-glass afterthought.
Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet 2019 — $95
For a 1er Cru-adjacent Puligny from one of Burgundy's most respected estates, $95 in a Miami Beach oceanfront room is genuinely fair. This is the move if you want to drink something meaningful without triggering a financial crisis.
Kistler Chardonnay Cuvee Cathleen 2021
Most tables at a Japanese restaurant reach for white Burgundy or Champagne, but Kistler's Cuvee Cathleen at $145 is a California Chardonnay that earns the comparison. Rich, precise, and almost criminally good with delicate fish — it gets overlooked because people underestimate California whites at omakase dinners.
Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon 2017
At $2,850, you're paying for a name and a story, not a wine that makes any sense next to wagyu in a warm dining room on Collins Avenue. The markup on cult Napa at this level is essentially a trophy tax — the wine is great, the value proposition is not.
Kistler Chardonnay Cuvee Cathleen 2021 + Hamachi Sashimi
The Cuvee Cathleen has the texture and brightness to meet hamachi's buttery fat without bullying it. California Chardonnay done right actually has more precision than people give it credit for, and here it keeps the fish front and center.
Wednesday — Half-price wine night every Wednesday — one of the better mid-week deals in Miami Beach if you're eyeing a bottle from the upper tiers of this list.
🎲 The Bottom Line
Makoto is a genuinely surprising wine list hiding inside a beautiful Japanese restaurant by the ocean — the France and California depth is real, the Wednesday half-price night is a gift, and the Puligny from Leflaive alone is worth the detour. Just know that the markups climb fast once you move into trophy territory, and there's no dedicated sommelier to guide you through it.
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