The Best Places to Drink Wine in Washington, D.C.

With wood-paneled walls and tabletops covered in rich leather, the plush dining room at Michael Mina's Bourbon Steak whisks patrons back to a time when lobbyists could wine and dine lawmakers with impunity. Ethics rules have changed, but D.C.'s power brokers still need to eat—and Bourbon Steak is a favorite for most. As one might expect at a tony steakhouse, the 900-label wine list is strong in Napa cabernet and classified growth Bordeaux. But wine director Winn Roberton has made a point of packing his list with bottles for budget-conscious wine lovers. Values abound in a section dubbed "Secrets of the Sommelier." ...

Cork Wine Bar was a pioneer along D.C.'s now-bustling 14th Street corridor when it opened in 2008. Dozens of restaurants have opened since, but Cork remains packed most nights thanks to dependable food and affordable wine. The Eurocentric list offers about 200 options, including nearly 60 by-the-glass pours. Refreshingly, most bottles are priced between $50 and $100, so even non-enthusiasts feel comfortable ordering multiple bottles of wine.

When the Dabney opened its doors at the tail end of 2015, expectations were high. Jeremiah Langhorne, the chef and co-owner, came to D.C. from McCrady’s, the acclaimed Charleston restaurant. He promised a hyper-local approach that would reflect the Mid-Atlantic’s unique geography. And his D.C. debut was previewed by a ten-part series in the Washington Post. The Dabney quickly lived up to the hype, landing a spot as one of Food & Wine’s ten best openings of 2016 and earning a Michelin star. In 2018, Langhorne took home Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic at the James Beard Awards. The wine program, developed by general ...

A stalwart on D.C.'s popular 14^th Street corridor, Etto has a reputation for offering the city's best pizza. But the restaurant also offers D.C.'s gutsiest wine list. Drawing almost exclusively from Sicily and Beaujolais, the restaurant only offers about 40 wines, half of which are offered by the glass. This focus makes sense once one examines the kitchen, since the chefs concentrate almost exclusively on pizza and cured meats.

For good reason, critics and amateur foodies alike were smitten when Kinship, the restaurant from husband-and-wife team Eric Ziebold and Celia Laurent, opened its doors in January 2016. A fireplace warms patrons who walk in. The music is present but unobtrusive. The bar and 85-seat dining room are visually arresting but immediately and obviously welcoming. And the food? Well, it might be some of D.C.’s best. The team takes its wine program just as seriously, with a well-curated list that’s packed with classic producers from Burgundy, Bordeaux and California.

When Maxwell Park opened its doors in June 2017, the city's wine geeks knew they’d been blessed with a second home. The brainchild of 31-year-old Brent Kroll, who spent most of his twenties as the wine director for one of D.C.’s most successful restaurant groups, the Shaw wine bar promised to be “devoted to the adventurous imbiber.” It delivered on this promise. Kroll has put together an extensive list of about 500 wines that’s refreshingly thoughtful and approachable. Most of the by-the-glass pours change each month to match a theme—in June 2018, for example, “Camp Maxwell” offered “chill lakeside whites [and] ...

Husband-and-wife team Sebastian Zutant and Lauren Winter have long been a force in D.C.'s dining scene. Zutant has designed many of the city's best wine lists and can take credit for introducing D.C. to orange wines and natural-wine producers like Arianna Occhipinti. Through her firm, Edit Lab at Streetsense, Winter has designed many of the city's most striking restaurants. In late 2017, the duo opened Primrose, a 65-seat wine bar just a few blocks from their home in Brookland, an up-and-coming neighborhood. It's as stunning as one might expect—with pitch-perfect bistro fare developed by consulting chef Nathan ...

One of the city's sleekest restaurants, RPM Italian quickly became a hotspot for lobbyists, lawyers and foreign dignitaries after opening its doors in the summer of 2016. The Italian-focused wine list is geared to those with deep pockets and corporate credit cards, offering a ten-vintage vertical of Ornellaia, back-vintage magnums of Sassicaia, and a full page of wines from Angelo Gaja. But budget-conscious wine lovers who know where to look won't be disappointed. From Italy, the list offers wines from producers like Radikon, Gravner, Bartolo Mascarello and G.D. Vajra without much markup. And from the United States, ...