Wine's Grand Award

Restaurants who take pride in their wines often compete for awards that will expose their collection and therefore be more attractive to customers who enjoy nice wines with their meal. The most prestigious of awards is the Wine Spectator's Restaurant Wine List Awards. This is an award that goes out to restaurants whose wine lists include interesting selections and unusual varieties that differ from other restaurants.

There are three awards given yearly after undergoing strenuous judging. Not only are the lists judged by the bottle selection, but also a restaurant most present an impressive wines by the glass list. Vintages (the wines year) and appellations (the geographical area where the grapes for a wine were grown) must be included with the presentation of each taken into consideration. The first award is the Award of Excellence which only has 2,957 winner per year. This is the most basic of the three awards and while you must include quality producers, you need only about 100 selections on your list. The Best of Award of Excellence is the next level boasting only 816 winners worldwide. Taking the requirements up a notch, these restaurants are required to offer at least 400 or more selections with varying degrees of vintages and varietals. The most outstanding of the awards is the Grand Award. Simply stated as a grand award, but really this honor encompasses much more. A restaurant has to have a dedicated staff that focuses only on their wine list to keep up with the rigorous task of maintaining the level of excellence this award requires. Selections range over 1,500 bottles and the level of producers, the mature vintages all in coordination with the food offered are all taken into consideration. Just having the cellar stocked is not enough as the staff must be trained to handle the bottles table side with the upmost of knowledge.

The Angus Barn, where I am employed, takes a great amount of pride in the fact they have won the Grand Award every year since 1989. This is no small feat and the owner makes sure that we have monthly classes on wine knowledge to keep us up to date and informed. It is very impressive to wait on a table and learn they are from out of town and have chosen our restaurant because they appreciate the wine cellar we have and the awards we have won.