MĂ©lisse Restaurant
DRC on Wilshire. Yes, Really.
Santa Monica · Santa Monica · American, French · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed April 7, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
The wine list at Mélisse arrives like a small novel — somewhere between 1,800 and 2,200 selections — and you immediately understand this isn't a restaurant that bolted a wine program onto a tasting menu. This is a place where the cellar was part of the blueprint. The French-California tasting menu sets the stage, and the list delivers on every promise the dining room makes.
Selection Deep Dive
Burgundy is the clear north star here: Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Henri Jayer Vosne-Romanée, Dujac Clos Saint-Denis, and Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet all show up, which is less a wine list and more a museum with a corkscrew. Bordeaux holds its own with Château Pétrus anchoring the prestige tier, while the Rhône gets serious representation via Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape. California isn't an afterthought — Kistler Chardonnay and Colgin Cellars Cabernet prove the team knows their backyard as well as they know France. If there's a gap, it's that adventurous drinkers looking outside the Old World–California axis may find the list more reverent than adventurous.
By the Glass
With 12 to 18 pours available by the glass, Mélisse gives you a real fighting chance at drinking well before the tasting menu's first course lands. The program doesn't appear to rotate aggressively, but at this level of restaurant the standing selections are typically well-chosen and poured correctly. We'd expect the glass program to skew toward Burgundy and Loire — fitting given the kitchen's French DNA.
Domaine Weinbach Alsace — $80
In a list where four-figure bottles are table stakes, Domaine Weinbach's Alsace bottlings represent some of the most honest pricing relative to quality. Aromatic, food-flexible, and criminally underordered at a tasting menu restaurant — this is the move if you want to drink serious wine without re-mortgaging your evening.
Leroy Bourgogne
Most guests blow straight past the humble 'Bourgogne' designation on their way to the Premiers and Grands Crus, but Lalou Bize-Leroy's village-level Burgundy punches so far above its station that calling it an entry point is almost misleading. It's the quietest flex on the list.
Château Pétrus
Look, Pétrus is Pétrus — the wine is flawless. But at a restaurant operating at fine dining markups in Santa Monica, you're paying for the name twice: once at the wholesale level and once at the restaurant level. Unless someone else is signing the check, the juice-to-dollar math here is brutal and there are better expressions of Bordeaux on this list for a fraction of the damage.
Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape + Wagyu beef with seasonal accompaniments
Rayas is a Grenache-driven Châteauneuf that's more perfume and precision than power — it doesn't try to muscle up against the beef, it wraps around it. The earthy, almost gamey quality of aged Rayas finds a natural counterpart in the richness of wagyu, and the wine's acidity keeps the whole thing from feeling like a competition.
🔥 The Bottom Line
Mélisse is what happens when a serious kitchen and a serious cellar grow up together — the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence is well-earned and the list earns Rager status on depth and curation alone. Just know going in that 'value' here is relative: you're playing in a premium sandbox, and the house rules price accordingly.
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