The Veranda
Victorian Charm With a Serious Cellar Beneath
Downtown Fort Myers · Fort Myers · Southern · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed April 14, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
Walking into The Veranda — two connected Victorian homes dripping with old Florida character — the wine list lands like a serious statement. It's long, it's organized, and it actually has a separate vintage cellar section, which you don't see at most restaurants in a beach-adjacent market like Fort Myers. This place clearly cares.
Selection Deep Dive
The list stretches across Napa, Sonoma, Alexander Valley, Oregon's Willamette Valley, Italy, New Zealand, and Bordeaux, which is more geographic range than you'd expect from a Southern-leaning steakhouse in Southwest Florida. California Cabs anchor the cellar — Caymus, Silver Oak, Cakebread, Stag's Leap — and while those are crowd-pleaser names, they're present in force and priced within reason relative to market. The Château La Gaffelière St. Emilion at $225 is a genuine nod to old-world Bordeaux fans who know what they're looking for. Gaps exist on the natural wine front and there's little presence from Spain or the Southern Hemisphere beyond New Zealand, but for a historic fine-dining room in Fort Myers, the depth is genuinely impressive.
By the Glass
Twelve-plus options by the glass is a solid count, spanning from the $11 house pours up to the Stag's Leap ARTEMIS Cab at $38 a glass — which is a bold but fair ceiling for a list like this. The bang-for-buck standouts are in the $15 range, where Meiomi Pinot Noir and Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio are actually priced at or below retail, a quietly generous move. Rotation is unclear and the program reads more like a fixed menu than a dynamic glass list, but what's there is consistent.
Meiomi Pinot Noir — $15
Retails around $20 and they're pouring it for $15 a glass — that's below retail, which almost never happens. It's an easy-drinking crowd-pleaser that works across the menu, and at this price it's hard to argue with.
Château La Gaffelière St. Emilion
Most tables at The Veranda are going straight for the Caymus or Silver Oak, and that's a shame because this Right Bank Bordeaux — Saint-Émilion, Merlot-dominant — is a more interesting bottle at $225. It rewards anyone willing to stray from the California Cab comfort zone.
Cakebread Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon
At $600 a bottle, Cakebread is doing a lot of heavy lifting on name recognition alone. It's a fine wine, but $600 is a significant premium for a label that retails in the $80-$90 range — the math doesn't hold up when the Silver Oak and Caymus are sitting right next to it at far more defensible prices.
Stag's Leap ARTEMIS Cabernet Sauvignon + Rack of Lamb
ARTEMIS is a structured, dark-fruited Napa Cab with enough grip to stand up to lamb without bulldozing it. At $38 a glass it's a splurge pour, but matched with the rack of lamb it becomes the move — two things the kitchen and cellar are clearly proud of, working together.
✔️ The Bottom Line
The Veranda isn't trying to be a wine bar — it's a landmark Southern dining room that happens to have a real cellar worth exploring. The pricing is fairer than you'd expect for the market, the depth is legitimate, and if you're willing to look past the Caymus-and-friends lineup, there are genuinely rewarding bottles hiding in there.
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