The George Restaurant
Hotel Wine Done Surprisingly Right
Downtown · Seattle · Contemporary American · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed April 14, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
Walking into a Fairmont hotel restaurant, you brace for the usual shakedown — inflated prices on wines you could grab at any grocery store. The George flips that script almost immediately. The list isn't trying to impress wine nerds, but the pricing is genuinely hard to argue with.
Selection Deep Dive
About 25 labels cover the bases you'd expect — California, Italy, Pacific Northwest, New Zealand, a nod to France and Argentina — without venturing anywhere adventurous. Duckhorn and The Prisoner anchor the California side, which tells you the audience here skews toward recognizable names over discovery. There's no deep bench on Burgundy or Rhône, no natural wine rabbit hole, no single-vineyard anything to get excited about. But within its lane, the list is coherent and competently assembled, which is more than you can say for most hotel dining rooms.
By the Glass
The by-the-glass program is the real story here, running $10–$25 and covering enough ground to make ordering a bottle feel almost unnecessary. Specific counts aren't published, but the spread includes sparkling, white, red, and everything in between. The pricing relative to retail on several pours is legitimately shocking for a Fairmont property.
Duckhorn Chardonnay — $22
Retail on this bottle sits around $40, and they're pouring it by the glass at $22. That's essentially buying a glass of a $40 wine for the price most places charge for house Chardonnay. It's the clearest win on the list.
Mer Soleil Chardonnay
At $12 a glass for a wine that retails around $20, this Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay is flying under the radar next to flashier names on the list. Richer and more textured than the Pinot Grigio crowd typically expects, and priced like they forgot to check retail.
Santa Margarita Pinot Grigio
It's the one glass on the list where the markup actually runs the wrong direction — $21 for a wine you can grab for $15 at any wine shop. Santa Margarita is fine, but it's not $21-a-glass fine, especially when the Maso Canali Pinot Grigio is sitting right there at $12.
The Prisoner Red Blend + Grilled Ribeye
The Prisoner's dark fruit and plush, slightly jammy profile is built for something with a char on it. A grilled ribeye gives the wine something substantial to push against, and at $25 a glass — against a $40 retail price — you're eating well on both counts.
✔️ The Bottom Line
The George won't win any awards for adventurous curation, but the pricing is genuinely generous for a hotel restaurant of this caliber — several glasses are at or below what you'd pay at retail. Send a friend here if they want something familiar and well-priced; just don't send them expecting to discover anything new.
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