Best Regional Wine List (in the region)

Best Regional Wine List (in the region)

Best Regional Wine List (in the region)

Criteria

Best Regional Wine List celebrates those establishments that build close relationships with neighbouring wine producers, exhibiting an intimate knowledge of the region’s history and terroir and promoting local produce, both food and wine, as the stars of the show.

Successful lists offer unparalleled depth in the wines of the country or region and a strong focus on local grape varieties, enabling wine lovers to engage as fully as possible with the region. While these lists promote their particular country or region, Judges still consider the criteria of breadth, depth, height, balance, selection, accuracy, originality, suitability, design, and value.

Criteria

Best Regional Wine List celebrates those establishments that build close relationships with neighbouring wine producers, exhibiting an intimate knowledge of the region’s history and terroir and promoting local produce, both food and wine, as the stars of the show.

Successful lists offer unparalleled depth in the wines of the country or region and a strong focus on local grape varieties, enabling wine lovers to engage as fully as possible with the region. While these lists promote their particular country or region, Judges still consider the criteria of breadth, depth, height, balance, selection, accuracy, originality, suitability, design, and value.

WINNERS

K'u'uk

South & Central America and the Caribbean | Regional Winner

Mérida, Mexico

K’u’uk Restaurant in Mérida, Yucatán, is renowned for its unique culinary experience that masterfully blends traditional Yucatán flavors with modern cooking techniques. Since its establishment in 2012, K’u’uk has been at the forefront of innovative Mexican cuisine, particularly highlighting the regional flavors of the Yucatán Peninsula. The restaurant, led by Chefs Eduardo Rukos & Pedro Evia , offers a diverse menu that captures the essence of Mexican-Mayan food in a contemporary style.

One of the key highlights of K’u’uk is its exceptional wine selection and impressive wine cellar. The restaurant takes great pride in offering a wide range of high-quality wines that are carefully chosen to complement their dishes. This commitment to excellence in wine selection enhances the overall dining experience, making it a delight for wine connoisseurs and enthusiasts. The wine pairings with meals are thoughtfully curated ensuring that the guests also visit the wine cellar which holds one of the largest selection of Mexican wines in its region.

The ambiance of K’u’uk Restaurant adds to its charm, with a sophisticated yet warm interior that welcomes diners into a world of culinary delights. The restaurant is also known for its attentive service and commitment to creating a memorable dining experience for every guest.

In summary, K’u’uk Restaurant stands out not only for its innovative approach to Yucatán cuisine but also for its excellent wine selection and cellar, making it a must-visit destination for those seeking a unique and high-quality dining experience in Mérida

Website

Press

North America | Regional Winner

California, USA

PRESS was born in 2005 as a restaurant whose ethos is exemplifying the food, wine, and people of the Napa Valley.

PRESS is a place for locals, winemakers, vintners, and guests from around the world to experience the best the Napa Valley has to offer — it’s this sense of community that is at the heart of everything PRESS does.

Under the leadership of Samantha Rudd and Chef Philip Tessier, PRESS features legendary Bay Area purveyors alongside innovative new culinary talents to highlight Napa Valley cuisine.

The PRESS Culinary Team draws inspiration from around the globe while staying rooted in the style and ingredients that make the Napa Valley so special.

Website

Restaurant Bennelong

Australasia | Regional Winner

Sydney, Australia

Bennelong serves to celebrate the Sydney Opera House and its extraordinary architecture by offering a culturally significant and inspiring menu showcasing a most magnificent production of Australian food and wine.

The wine program showcases Australian producers first alongside Benchmark producers from the classic wine regions of the world.

Website

Sabi Sabi

Middle East & Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa

For more than 40 years, Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve has been a custodian of the wilderness, offering a luxurious haven in the heart of the bush at its 5-star lodges.

Seamlessly integrated with the vast Kruger National Park, Sabi Sabi is unwavering in its commitment to both the local community’s well-being and the protection of the diverse flora and fauna within the reserve.

Taking pride in featuring undiscovered and much-loved boutique South African wines, Sabi Sabi enjoys seeing the reactions of guests as they find a new favourite which they will always associate with their stay.

More than 6,000 bottles of the finest South African wine is found in the cellar at Earth Lodge, with the Sabi Sabi team having personally sought out and selected the very best from family owned or boutique wineries, as well as independent wine-makers located in some of the country’s lesser known wine regions.

Great thought, care and expertise came into play when designing the Lodges’ wine lists which feature local and international wines. The selection, which varies from lodge to lodge, takes into account the bushveld setting, menu and climate and has input from the lodge managers.

In 2010, Sabi Sabi appointed the Stellenrust winery as the estate of choice for its house wine. Situated in the well-known Stellenbosch area of South Africa. Guests can sample Sabi Sabi’s own label wines, produced by Stellenrust.

Choose from a Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon, matured in the cellar of Earth Lodge in oak barrels and bottled in early 2017.

Website

SW Steakhouse

Asia | Regional Winner

Macau, China

SW Steakhouse, Wynn Palace, Cotai, Macau SAR; where dinner theater is reimagined, American Steakhouse Cabaret, with a world-leading wine program.

SW is entering its 8th year of operation and has hit its stride with the landmark Greater Bay Area’s Fine Dining Steakhouse. The accolades continue to tumble in, and most notably, the wine program’s recognition and overall success has drawn destination dinners and wine enthusiasts.

After four years of execution, in 2020, Forbes awarded SW Wynn Palace its first Forbes 5 Star, the 1st and only Steakhouse in the World to do so. 2023 makes the fourth year that SW was awarded Forbes Five Stars. Wynn Palace now has the most Forbes 5 Star restaurants of any resort in the world.

SW’s Menu leads the region with aged prime beef & Wagyu, live Lobster, seafood, and has also enthusiastically revived caviar service for our discerning guests. The Wine Program now has over 819 individual labels and a total of approximately 21,500 bottles on-premises.

The program’s pricing model is better than standard for a luxury resort. Beginning at the entry-level 3.5x markup to 3x markup until the bottle cost exceeds $39USD gradually decreasing, becoming more reasonable as the values go up, to the standard 2x ceiling for the most precious bottlings.

The most notable impact is the acquisition cost for the amassed collection. As most fine wines were supplied directly to guarantee provenance, the value is passed on to the guests without auction or secondary market margins to consider.

Our guests confidently see that our menu prices are far better than they could do privately or at auctions–if available at all.

Website

The Yeatman

Europe | Regional Winner

Porto | Portugal

Occupying a breathtaking position overlooking the River Douro and historic city of Porto, The Yeatman is located in one of Europe’s great wine capitals, the city which gave its name to Port.
A unique destination hotel, The Yeatman blends the best of Portuguese hospitality, culture, wine and gastronomy offering a luxurious, world-class experience.
The Yeatman provides an ideal base from which to explore Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia where Port houses have aged and blended wines for generations.
The Hotel presents a sophisticated wine programme involving over 100 wine partners who have given their name and decorative elements to a bedroom, whose wines are listed on the Hotel’s award-winning wine list. The Yeatman introduces the wealth and breadth of Portuguese wines by regions, style and personality. The wine cellar houses the most comprehensive collection of Portuguese wine, testimony to the diversity of styles and great winemaking tradition in Portugal. Weekly wine dinners, co-hosted by a wine producer, present a selection of wines with food pairings in a unique and exceptional dinner experience. Activities offer wine tastings, tailored masterclasses and events including Sunset Wine Parties and the Christmas Wine Experience.
The Yeatman’s Wine Book contains the complete wine list with 1600 references and 37,000 bottles, 94% of which is composed of Portuguese wine. It features in the Hotel’s food and beverage outlets, with over 100 wines by the glass: at Dick’s Bar & Bistro where one can enjoy an informal menu and wines by the glass, including cocktails and Ports; and The Orangerie Restaurant with its relaxed atmosphere and some of Chef’s favourite dishes.
At the 2 Michelin star Gastronomic Restaurant, the Wine Book and The Anthology take centre stage creating exceptional food and wine pairings to match traditional flavours of Portugal, reinterpreted with contemporary flair by Chef Ricardo Costa.

Website

Press Restaurant

Global Winner

California, USA

PRESS Restaurant puts the Napa Valley on a pedestal — the people, the ingredients, and the wines. PRESS is a place for locals, winemakers, vintners, and guests from around the world to experience the best the Napa Valley has to offer — it’s this sense of community that is at the heart of everything PRESS does.

Under the leadership of Samantha Rudd and Chef Philip Tessier, PRESS features legendary Bay Area purveyors alongside innovative new culinary talents to highlight Napa Valley cuisine.

The PRESS Culinary Team draws inspiration from around the globe while staying rooted in the style and ingredients that make the Napa Valley so special.

Website

Telephone: (707) 967-0550

Bennelong

Australasia | Regional Winner

Sydney, Australia

With Peter Gilmore, one of Australia’s most celebrated chefs at the helm, Bennelong serves to celebrate the Sydney Opera House and its extraordinary architecture by offering a culturally significant and inspiring menu, showcasing a most magnificent production of Australian food and wine.

In addition to a small selection of incredible wines sourced from around the globe, Bennelong is proud to offer over 200 of Australia’s favourite small-scale labels from an eclectic collection of wine-makers.

Website

Email: reservations@bennelong.com.au

Telephone: 02 9240 8000

Hajime

Asia | Regional Winner

Osaka, Japan

HAJIME was founded in May of 2008 in Osaka
by Hajime Yoneda with the theme of “A truly wonderful restaurant.”

The cuisine it serves is created with the utmost attention to details, delicately fine-tuned skills, a spirit of innovation, and an uncompromising spirit of enquiry.

The worldview of HAJIME is the product of the aesthetics of Hajime Yoneda,and represents the beauty of order found
within the balance and harmony of nature, the earth, and space. One can also experience within his creations a feeling of respect for nature and the earth, the fleetingness of life,
and ultimately a sense of life itself.

Creations – embodying both the basis and subsequent progress of gastronomy – are timeless and moving, lingering in the heart and mind.

Take a glimpse unto the world of HAJIME and enjoy to the full.

Website

Email: office@hajime-artistes.com

Telephone: 06-6447-6688

K’u’uk

South & Central America and the Caribbean | Regional Winner

Mérida, Mexico

K’u’uk is a Mexican restaurant with a close approach to the authentic Mayan roots & ingredients mixing avant-garde techniques

“”10 years ago we had the dream of creating a space in which tradition and avant-garde were one and the same.

You and I are that, we are K´u´uk. Thank you””

– Eduardo Rukos & Pedro Evia

Website

Email: reserva@kuukrestaurant.com

Telephone: +52-999-9443377

La Bandiera

Europe | Regional Winner

Abruzzo, Italy

Among the delicate colours of Pescara’s hills, a minimal and innovative cuisine based on the extraordinariness of the raw materials, chosen one by one by the reliable local producers, genuinely tells the visitor about the ancient traditions of this land and its countless tastes.

The menus, both à la carte and tasting, embrace a wide gastronomic range that is able to narrate the century-old historical background of a generous land.

Thorough and balanced, with special consideration for organic productions, the wine list created and set up by Alessio enhances the best offer of the regional, national and french oenology, yet without omitting a good selection of worldwide labels.

Family run, Anna D’Andrea, in 1977 after twenty years of work experience as a cook in Rome, returned to Civitella Casanova to give shape and substance to her dream: converting a salt and tobacco shop into a trattoria.

Following in his mother’s teachings over time Marcello Spadone and wife Bruna, with thanks and help from their children, Alessio and Mattia, and a close-knit team of collaborators have transformed La Bandiera into an elite place of the Abruzzian gastronomy.

Website

Email: info@labandiera.it

Telephone: 85845219

Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve

Middle East & Africa | Regional Winner

Johannesburg, South Africa

Family owned Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve has been welcoming visitors to the Bushveld for more than 40 years.

With four luxury lodges that epitomise the design philosophy of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Sabi Sabi continues to be celebrated for its commitment to conservation and community, incredible wildlife encounters, fine cuisine and true South African hospitality which make for a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Taking pride in featuring undiscovered and much-loved boutique South African wines, Sabi Sabi enjoys seeing the reactions of guests as they find a new favourite which they will always associate with their stay. Some of the finest South African wines are housed in the cavernous Earth Lodge wine cellar, selecting the very best from family owned or boutique wineries across the country.

Guests can also sample Sabi Sabi’s own label wines, produced by Stellenrust Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. Choose from a Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon, matured in the cellar of Earth Lodge in oak barrels and bottled in early 2017.

Website

Email: res@sabisabi.com

Telephone: +27 11 447 7172