The 10 Best Wine Lists in L.A. : Amid some pretty stiff competition, what counts most is a restaurateur’s creativity

Choosing the 10 best wine lists in Los Angeles County is no easy task. Many local lists have breadth and depth, excellent wines that fit the restaurant’s menu, and some unusual items for the adventuresome.

But that’s not enough. Other factors I considered are reasonable pricing, good service, good storage, good glassware and the ability to dance well--to change with the times and react to the latest trends.

Many potentially great wine lists I looked at were ruined by pricing--pricing higher than it ought to be, especially for currently available wines.

In the end, what placed these 10 lists above the rest was the creativity of the restaurateurs in offering selections that not only matched the food but also kept pace with the current wine scene, including the addition of the so-called “neon darlings” of the wine business.

Once, if your wine list had Stony Hill and Joseph Swan wines, you were in. Today those wines still show great taste and dedication, but among the newest of the neon darlings of the industry are Spottswoode, Ferrari-Carano, Hess Collection, Dunn, Forman. (Next year? Maybe it will be Skalli Atkinson.)

Another factor I considered was the condition of the wine. If storage appeared questionable, a wine list was lowered in the ranking. (One excellent list dropped out of the top 10 for this reason.)

Arbitrary though it may be, I chose to rank the top 10 restaurants in order. And the winners are. . . .

1. Valentino. Sixty-seven pages of wines, more than 1,000 selections, and all the neon darlings are the obvious reasons that Valentino tops the list. But Piero Selvaggio injects so much of his ebullient personality into the wine list and the wine service that one cannot help but become enthused.

More than 20 pages of this list are devoted to Italian wines, most priced fairly. And every important name from Italy is represented: Gaja, Ceretto, Mascarello, Biondi-Santi, Conterno, Giacosa, Oddero, you name it. Beyond that are dozens of tiny properties only a Piero would know about.

The California list is amazingly deep, with every top producer, and older vintages that are priced fairly: 1979 St. Clement Cabernet, $22; 1974 Inglenook Cask Cabernet, $25; 1977 Clos du Val Zinfandel, $17.

Storage is perfect, in one of two temperature-controlled rooms. Glassware is attractive and large; different styles of stemware are used for new wines.

Minor drawbacks include only one Gewurztraminer (but with so much else to choose from, this is nit-picking). Overall, from Champagne (more than 60 on the list!) to dessert wines, there is a bottle here priced to fit every budget--though Valentino is not the place to be frugal.

2. The Chronicle. Lud Renick has been into wine since he opened this Pasadena institution, buying virtually all he could get his hands on, most of it prime. Today the list has a condition approaching acromegaly, but it’s laden with older, perfectly stored wines.

It has the same breadth and depth of the Valentino list, but instead of Italy being the focus, California here takes center stage. This shows up first in the list of Chardonnays (more than 100) that features many older, well-stored bottles. And at prices you’d swear were mistakes.

Better still is the list of older red wines. A wine lover would have a hard time picking a Bordeaux when there are also all those older Rhones, California Pinot Noirs, Cabernets and Zinfandels.

Glassware is good. Service is near-flawless, which elevates The Chronicle into the stratosphere of great wine/dining establishments.

Also, The Chronicle has a most reasonable corkage policy: $10 (or give the captain a sip of your older wine and he generally waives the fee).

Be forewarned: The Santa Monica restaurant of the same name has no relation, wine-wise, to the Pasadena spot.

3. Trattoria Angeli. This upscale Santa Monica Boulevard restaurant opened last year with a wine list far superior to the one at the original Angeli Caffe. Recently the list was redone, making it a masterful assemblage of commonly available elements.

Dean Gold and John Strobel didn’t rob tombs to improve this list, so there are no 1797 Chateau Le Poopoos here. But they did their homework--tasting to discover the wines they wanted and working hard to get a lot of hard-to-get wines.

Then they did the thinkable: They priced the list reasonably. They organized it logically, and they added pertinent comments where needed.

The 24-page list starts with three sherries and a Sercial Madeira by the glass, wends its way through a selection of half bottles and sparkling wines and hits all the wine regions worth hitting. (I’m not certain about that Mawby Vignoles from Michigan.) Italy gets full treatment, as do California reds.

Gold and Strobel also knew that if some rare wines were priced at the standard markup, they wouldn’t sell, so 17 expensive wines are listed at their suggested retail prices! (The section on the list bears the headline “Wine Madness”--I call this Wine Brilliance.)

This means a bottle of 1984 Flora Springs Trilogy is $36; a bottle of 1986 Drouhin Beaune Clos des Mouches is $37.50, or a 1982 Chateau Pichon-Lalande is $50.

Hooray for sanity.

4. Chez Melange. Hundreds of wines or a calligraphed list on rice paper are not necessary to have a great wine list. Proof comes at this Redondo Beach boite -nee-coffee shop.

The physical list itself is curious: legal-size Xerox copies of a computer printout placed into plastic holders and held together, sort of, by a clipboard.

And with only 120 wines, and wine glasses that have pink stems to match the decor of the restaurant, what’s the big deal?

The deal is that Paul Herbert and Michael Franks have thought this list carefully through, and each bottle was chosen after personal evaluation--down to the vintage--and made to go with the eclectic menu. Each wine has a one-line description, which I think is a marvelous touch. Another fine element, and one that I have never seen on any other list, is the inclusion of the name of the wine maker.

Prices are fair: generally about 2.4 times wholesale, sometimes less.

Franks and Herbert, wine’s greatest emissaries in the South Bay, offer wine courses and special dinners for any occasion that sounds like an occasion (including Boxing Day).

The sense of fun and enthusiasm pervade this place, a delight for wine lovers.

5. West Beach Cafe and Rebecca’s. Both of these restaurants run by Bruce Marder have the same impressive list. There are 500 selections, with wines from most major growing regions in the world, including Australia. The list also has some of the rarest wines in the world as well as Cognacs, Armagnacs, eaux-de-vie and Sherry (not to mention special Kentucky bourbon and 33 single-malt Scotch whiskies!).

Prices aren’t particularly low, but the wines are well chosen, especially with the broad list of Bordeaux, including lots of older vintages; a wide list of California wines (old and new), and half bottles of excellent wines.

The best part of this list are the sleepers, wines that--wine lovers will know this right off--didn’t get here by accident, such as two Penfolds Australian Cabernets; three Spanish reds; two 1979 Cote-Roties and a 1961 Chianti Classico Riserva from Dr. Fossi at $35. (But beware: The Fossi wine may be a gamble. Some bottles I have had were spectacular, others from the same vintage were spoiled.)

Moreover, there are wines priced in every category, from $15 to hundreds, and at the upper strata are the famed wines of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti at prices that are, in effect, less than retail.

6. Peppone. Gianni Paoletti, a former associate of Piero Selvaggio at Valentino, has built a wine list that crosses swords with Valentino’s for breadth and creativity but which leans more toward California than Italy.

Paoletti owns property in the Napa Valley and knows many of its residents, so he gets wines others never hear of. Especially limited production stuff.

Sprinkled throughout this marvelous compilation are such unknown items as 1983 Chalone Chardonnay “Stockholders’ Reserve”; a magnum of 1983 Mount Eden Chardonnay; magnums of Stony Hill Chardonnays, not to mention 1986 Stony Hill Dry Semillon (of which only 70 cases were made); and a California Cabernet list that’s among the best in the nation.

Pricing is fair, especially for older wines (example: 1974 Mayacamas Cabernet, $60). And for the truly savvy, the Italian section has some sleepers (1971 Cossetti Barbera and 1978 Pio Cesare Barbera, both $28; 1968 Mascarello Barolo, one of the best Barolos I’ve ever tasted, $36).

Another sleeper is 1985 Redbank “Sally’s Paddock” (the Australian equivalent of Heitz Martha’s Vineyard) at $28. There are also more than 50 dessert wines.

7. Michael’s. Phil Reich is a wine maven with a heart and a brain, so instead of merely buying a whole slug of stuff and putting it out there for you to drool over, he has assembled a remarkable collection that reflects (a) great wine and (b) wine that goes with Michael’s food.

In general, pricing is fairly high, but for this you get excellent service, fine glassware, and a selection of older vintages that have been carefully cellared. Moreover, the list is current: I doubt you’ll have a waiter return empty-handed to your table and say, “Sorry, we’re out of that selection.”

The list, hundreds of wines deep, has a marvelous collection of older California wines, especially reds, and there are a number of great imports here that you’d find only at the house of a connoisseur.

8. 72 Market Street. As with Reich at Michael’s, Rafael Nazario has put his personal stamp on this list, and you see it in the comments that dot the list. Though some comments are frivolous, others are clearly about wines most people don’t know, wines such as Balifico Castello di Volpaia or Garrefeira.

Pricing here, as with Michael’s, is high, which dropped this otherwise great list a few notches. But the enthusiasm of Rafael for the older vintages that appear on each page are enticing.

Among the great unknowns on this list are such wines as Ridge Ruby Cabernet, Preston Sirah-Syrah, and wines from Chinon and Provence, plus an array of ports and eaux-de-vie.

9. Pioneer Boulangerie. A bakery with a great wine list? Yes. In fact, it’s one of the finest wine lists anywhere in the world, based on price.

What makes this such a hot spot for the wine lover is the retail shop from which, for a $5 corkage charge, you can take anything to your table. Here you can find a flood of exciting things to have with your dinner, such as 1978 Vallana Spanna for $13.79 ($8.79 plus $5 corkage); 1978 Chateau Cheval Blanc for $90; 1977 Phelps Backus for $50, or a choice of 50 or more Chardonnays, 20 white Burgundies, and 700 other items.

Bruce Geitzen, the beverage manager, seeks out good values and has wine from Australia, Spain and Chile. The printed wine list in the restaurant is priced at twice wholesale, as reasonable a markup as I’ve seen.

The dessert wine list is superb, and service and glassware are better than many restaurants that charge your three times the price. This is the wine-dining bargain of the year. Any year.

10. Saddle Peak Lodge. Matching wine with food is what a great list should be all about, and Rolf Nonnast has put together an 80-page tome that features all the rough-and-ready wines you need to go with wild game, the specialty of the house.

Those searching for a 1929 Latour would be disappointed here, but the management points out that when the menu offers quail, duckling, venison and other wild things, the flavors are so strong that such delicate wines would be a waste.

For this you need a gutsy Zinfandel or, better yet, a Petite Sirah, preferably from an older vintage, and this Nonnast supplies aplenty.

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How, you may ask, could I leave out Scandia or Pacific Dining Car or Monty’s from a top-10 list? Some lists were, after all, what one local sommelier calls “quarter-pounders” that weigh as much as a McDonald’s special.

In all cases, something beyond the actual listing of wines added to the decision. In some cases, it was glassware, in other cases it was curious or awful service, occasionally it was pricing out of the realm of reason. (In one case, Monty’s, the restaurant closed after a fire.)

Sometimes, it was an indication that some bottles I tried were stored at less than optimum conditions.

Other lists that I considered came close, such as those at La Strega, Hy’s Steak House, La Scala, Rex il Ristorante, Hotel Bel Air, Sonora Grill, Ma Maison at the Sofitel Hotel, Studio Grill, Spago and Opera. But each had a flaw that dropped it in the rankings.