Old Vines Wine Bar

You walk into Old Vines and the list immediately tells you someone actually cares — this isn't a wine list assembled by a beverage distributor rep, it's a point of view. Small producers, natural and biodynamic leanings, and a geographic spread that goes from the Loire to the Finger Lakes without feeling scattered. It's compact enough to read, ambitious enough to surprise you.

The backbone here is French — Loire Valley naturals, grower Champagnes, Burgundy, and Rhône — but it doesn't stop there. Southern Italian and Sicilian varietals show up with real intention, giving you the kind of regional depth most wine bars fake with a token Nero d'Avola. Pacific Northwest representation via Willamette Valley Pinot Noir keeps the American contingent honest, and the Finger Lakes Riesling picks signal that whoever built this list is paying attention to what's actually interesting right now in domestic wine. Gaps exist — South America and Germany are light to nonexistent — but the omissions feel like editorial choices, not laziness.

With 20-35 pours by the glass, Old Vines operates more like a wine bar should and less like a restaurant that added a few glasses as an afterthought. The range tracks the bottle list — expect Loire whites, a grower Champagne option, and rotating naturals alongside more approachable crowd-pleasers. If you can't find something interesting here by the glass, you're not looking hard enough.