A Wine List to Envy

When a new, upscale restaurant opens and on Day One you are handed a wine list with more than 250 wines, heavily weighted toward older bottles (and with 16 magnums), you figure something’s up.

After all, new restaurants are typically financially unprepared to put together wine programs with any significant depth. That’s why it was so surprising to see the new Brentwood Bar & Grill with a wine list that contains a flock of otherwise unobtainable wines--e.g., 1974 Heitz Martha’s Vineyard Cabernet, 1977 Chappellet Chardonnay, 1981 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, or an array of French white wines that includes Corton-Charlemagne, Montrachet, Meursault, etc., many from past vintages.

But the Brentwood Bar & Grill is no Robert-come-lately to the restaurant business. It is owned by Robert Burns & Sons Inc., which operates the Bob Burns Restaurants and was established in 1918.

Bob Burns himself (son of the founder of the chain) claims credit for the list. “I’ve been collecting these things for a long time,” he said. Then, in what I’d call a bit of an understatement, he added, “I like white Burgundies.” An entire page of the wine menu is devoted to dozens of white Burgundies.

You first see Burns’ commitment to wine here with a glance to the rear wall, adjacent to the open-to-view kitchen. Behind a window looms the wine cellar with sweeping curved wooden wine racks, though the bulk of the collection is stored in a temperature-controlled locker nearby.

Inside I noted that fill levels on older bottles were high, with no sign of leakage. This indicates that these bottles aren’t new to cushy surroundings--obviously they’d enjoyed good storage conditions previously.

Another clue to the wine commitment is the glassware--elegant, long-stemmed tulip glasses with a fine rim and the ring of crystal. And service here is close to perfect. Our server brought the white wine cold but not frozen, opened the bottle without strain, poured properly and asked if we wanted an ice bucket.

All this sounds as if it should be easy to find a wine for dinner, right? Not entirely. One of the irritants here is pricing. It is inconsistent; therefore, only savvy, knowledgeable wine buyers will be able to ferret out the good values.

Generally, currently available wines are marked up about three times their wholesale price here. This is a bit high, especially when a wine has a suggested retail price of $20 to $25. This means that for such a wine the tab here is $40 to $50. Ouch .

Such is the case with the still-available 1979 Chateau Talbot, which has a suggested retail price of $23. It is on the list here for $45. Or the 1986 Arrowood Chardonnay, with a suggested retail price of $16; here it’s $31.

As you move up the price scale, however, to wines selling at retail for $40 or more, the margin is more reasonable. (Examples: 1983 Chateau Lynch-Bages, with a suggested retail of $40, is $60 here; 1981 Chateau Pichon-Lalande, with a suggested retail of $80, is $100 here.)

Because the formula is set this way, it means there are few wines under $20. Moreover, some sections of the list are a disappointment, such as the Italian red wine section, which has only one item priced below $36. Fortunately it’s a bargain: 1985 Frescobaldi Pomino Rosso, $18, just $3 above its shelf price.

Taking it as a whole, though, this is a well-thought-out list with some fine wine. Here are a few guidelines:

Best Chardonnay value: 1986 Hess Collection ($24). Brilliantly balanced between fruit and depth, it originally sold for $14.50 before it sold out.

Best Chardonnay, regardless of price: Impossible to say because your style may differ from mine, but you have a choice of eight 1981s, four 1980s, six 1979s, and two 1977s in addition to the hard-to-get 1986 Ferrari-Carano ($35).

Best aperitif: 1987 Kenwood Chenin Blanc ($15) or any of three Trimbach wines from the Alsace (each $20).

Best value in White Burgundy: You’ve got to be kidding.

Probably the best White Burgundy, regardless of price: 1985 Le Montrachet Marquis de Laguiche ($780 for the magnum). I have not tasted this wine. I cannot afford it.

Best Cabernet Sauvignon value: 1981 Lakespring ($26). A phenomenal wine that now has bottle age to show its complexity.

Best under-$15 red: 1986 Fetzer Mendocino Zinfandel ($13)

Best red Bordeaux value: 1983 Chateau Gloria ($30).

Best red Burgundy value: See Best value in White Burgundy.

Best Italian red: 1985 Monte Vertine Le Pergole Torte ($48). What a wine!

For those who like after-dinner drinks, the Cognac list is long and well-chosen, and there are also Calvados, Eaux-de-Vie, and Grappa (including the famed Nonino). Also, there are six Sherries and three Ports by the glass. Alas, two of the Ports (1963 Taylor and 1963 Quinta do Noval) are unready to drink. The best value is the 1975 Fonseca, $15 for a glass.

And for beer fanciers, more than two dozen listed on a back page of the wine list include some of my favorites such as Pilsner Urquell, Samuel Smith’s, Sierra Nevada and Anchor Steam.