Whisky Bar Hiding a Serious Wine Secret
Buckman · Portland · Cocktail Bar with French-Influenced Small Plates · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed June 17, 2026
Wingman Metrics
You walk into a dimly lit basement speakeasy expecting to talk about Scotch all night, and then a wine list lands in front of you with Gérard Boulay Sancerre and Occhipinti on it. It's a genuine surprise — the kind that makes you reconsider your drink order before you've even sat down properly. The list is compact, maybe a dozen bottles deep on any given visit, but every pick reads like someone with actual taste put it together.
The wine program leans hard into Old World Europe — Loire Valley, Burgundy, and southern French appellations anchor the list, with a few left-field Italian picks like the Occhipinti SP68 Rosso keeping things honest. The Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé and Julien Sunier Régnié signal that whoever's building this list has a clear point of view, not just a distributor relationship. There's no deep cellar here and no vertical of anything, but the curation punches well above the room's whisky-forward reputation. Gaps exist — no real German or Spanish white presence, and if you want something outside France or Italy you're mostly out of luck.
Roughly six to ten wines rotate through the glass program, which is a solid commitment for a bar whose identity is built around a wall of single malts. Small-grower Champagne appears by the glass seasonally, which is the kind of thing that earns genuine goodwill. The rotation keeps things fresh enough that repeat visitors have reason to check back in.
Julien Sunier Régnié 2022 — $74
At roughly 95% over retail it's not cheap, but Sunier's Régnié is the kind of Beaujolais that makes people rethink the category entirely — light, mineral, genuinely interesting — and it fits the moody bar atmosphere better than anything heavier on the list.
Cappellano Barolo Chinato
Most people walk past this because they don't know what Barolo Chinato is — it's a bitter, aromatic digestif wine from one of Piedmont's most revered producers, and at $28 a glass it's actually a fair pour given the retail math. Order it after your steak frites and thank us later.
Gérard Boulay Sancerre 'Tradition' 2022
It's a terrific wine — no argument there — but at $72 a bottle for something that retails around $34, you're paying more than double for the privilege of drinking it in a basement. Save Boulay for a wine bar that doesn't mark it up quite so aggressively.
Occhipinti SP68 Rosso 2022 + Steak frites
The SP68 Rosso is a juicy, low-intervention Sicilian red built on Frappato and Nero d'Avola — enough dark fruit to hold up to beef, enough freshness and acidity to cut through the butter on those frites without making you feel like you're arm-wrestling your meal.
🎲 The Bottom Line
Scotch Lodge is the rare whisky bar where skipping the whisky is a legitimate option — the wine list is genuinely curated and the staff knows it cold. The markups will sting if you're paying attention to retail prices, but the overall experience is good enough that most people won't mind.
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.