Nebraska's Most Quietly Serious Wine List
Downtown / Near South · Lincoln · French-influenced contemporary American · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed June 25, 2026
Wingman Metrics
Walk into a cozy European bistro tucked into downtown Lincoln and find a 200-bottle Wine Spectator Award of Excellence list staring back at you — that's the first surprise. The Green Gateau plays the country-inn aesthetic hard, and the wine list quietly backs it up. This is not the list you expect from a Nebraska neighborhood spot, and that's exactly the point.
Two hundred selections is serious business anywhere, let alone in Lincoln. The list sweeps through France, Italy, and broader Europe before looping back through domestic heavyweights and Oregon producers like Sokol Blosser, which shows up in multiple spots and signals that someone here is actually paying attention to the Pacific Northwest. The range from $35 to $648 a bottle means there's room for a casual Tuesday dinner and a proper celebration on the same list. Gaps in the research prevent us from calling out every region, but the Wine Spectator recognition isn't a fluke — this list has real breadth.
Eight by-the-glass options is a tight but respectable lineup, and the Gateau House Wine anchoring the program in red, white, and rosé gives casual drinkers an easy on-ramp. The Monday-through-Friday happy hour drops glass pours to $8 from 5 to 6 p.m., and the house bottles get a standing 25% discount — that's a genuine deal worth building a plans around. We'd love to see the BTG selection rotate more adventurously, but the pricing structure at least rewards showing up early.
La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir — $15
This one is almost embarrassing — La Crema Sonoma Coast retails around $23 and they're pouring it for $15 a glass. That's below retail by a wide margin. Order it twice and feel no guilt whatsoever.
Sokol Blosser (Oregon)
Most diners at a French-leaning bistro in Nebraska are going to default to the French or Italian bottles and miss the Oregon selections entirely. Sokol Blosser is a serious producer with a long track record in the Willamette Valley — finding it on a list in downtown Lincoln is a minor discovery worth acting on.
Traditional Spumante
An 83% markup on a $12 retail bottle of sparkling wine is a lot to ask. At $22, you're paying a significant premium for something that doesn't merit it — especially when the Mionetto Prosecco options are sitting right next to it at a fraction of the markup.
La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir + Nebraska Wagyu Beef
Wagyu's rich fat content needs a wine with enough red fruit and acid to cut through without overwhelming the beef's natural sweetness. Sonoma Coast Pinot does exactly that — it's structured but not tannic, and at $15 a glass against a premium beef entrée, it's one of the better value plays on the menu.
🎲 The Bottom Line
The Green Gateau is doing something genuinely uncommon: running a deep, fairly priced, award-recognized wine program in a mid-sized Midwest city without making a big show of it. Yes, send your friends here — just tell them to show up before 6 p.m.
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