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The art of hospitality is alive and well, with restaurants finding new and exciting ways to satisfy both their regular clientele and attract broader audiences. With sophisticated AI and other technologies spreading more broadly throughout our lives, restaurateurs and wine professionals are proving to be indispensible, offering advice, guidance and a sense of connection and community that the likes of ChatGPT cannot achieve.
You can see evidence of that in our newly revealed list of more than 3,500 restaurants that have earned Restaurant Awards from Wine Spectator in 2023. This year’s winners, each offering outstanding wine programs, hail from all 50 states and more than 75 countries and territories. The awards are given across three categories: Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence and Grand Award.
This year, we are excited to add a new country to those represented in our list of winners: Ivory Coast. “We are incredibly proud to be the first restaurant in the Ivory Coast to receive such recognition. It is our hope that this achievement will inspire other establishments in the region to elevate their wine offerings to international standards,” said Nicolas Delsuc, owner and wine director of new Award of Excellence winner Gina by Zanoni, in Abidjan. “The ultimate joy for me is witnessing the delight of our patrons as they rave about our wine selection, often exclaiming, ‘Who would have believed that such an exceptional wine list exists in West Africa!’”
Even while dealing with the challenges that linger from the pandemic, restaurants around the world have found ways not only to excel and distinguish themselves with wine, but to exceed their previous accomplishments. At newly upgraded Best of Award of Excellence winner Hermitage Inn, in West Dover, Vt., owner and wine director Mary Lou Ricci had been nervous about taking over a restaurant with such a storied history. She and her husband purchased Hermitage Inn in April 2021, despite the continued spread of COVID-19, after it had been closed for over three years. “After only 18 months after opening,” she said, “to receive the Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence is not only completely rewarding, it is truly our dream coming to life!”
The Hermitage Inn more than doubled the size of its wine list in the past year since earning the Award of Excellence in 2022. “We are passionate about wines,” Ricci added. “It is an extraordinary honor to be able to share our passion with every guest that drives over our covered bridge and enters the historic Hermitage Inn.”
The Award of Excellence is given to restaurants offering well-curated lists with approximately 90 selections or more. These lists feature quality producers and wines that diners wouldn’t easily find at local wine stores and drink at home. These wine selections also match the restaurant’s cuisine in both style and pricing, giving guests a well-rounded experience. This year, 2,001 restaurants achieved the Award of Excellence.
The Best of Award of Excellence winners, of which there are 1,411 in 2023, take their efforts a step further. These lists include around 350 selections or more, representing a breadth of wine regions and styles, as well as vintage depth through vertical collections of notable wines. These restaurants also provide training and educational opportunities for staff so that they can help customers make well-informed wine choices.
The program’s highest honor is the Grand Award—the ultimate recognition for restaurants with world-class wine programs. This hard-to-achieve award is bestowed upon restaurants that show unwavering passion and perseverance in strategically building thoughtful, impeccable wine programs, then maintaining and even growing them year after year. These wine lists, which typically have 1,000 or more selections, deliver an incredibly thorough range of leading wineries and outstanding depth in mature vintages, along with bottles in multiple sizes. Along with superior presentation of their wine lists and excellent harmony with their menus, these restaurants offer the highest level of wine service. Wine Spectator reviewers inspect all candidates for the Grand Award to evaluate the overall dining experience and cellar conditions. In 2023, we honor 93 Grand Award winners.
To explore these great dining spots for enjoying wine, head to WineSpectator.com’s free-access Restaurant Search, which features all of Wine Spectator’s 2023 Restaurant Award winners searchable by name, location, cuisine type, wine strengths, pricing and award level. To access restaurant recommendations on the go, try Wine Spectator’s Restaurant Awards app, available free in the App Store. All award winners are also featured in the Aug. 31, 2023, issue of Wine Spectator (available on newsstands July 11), which goes into more depth on how restaurants are securing their livelihoods in the face of technological advancement.
Throughout the year, keep on top of restaurant-related news and trends and learn more about the Restaurant Award winners in Q&As with leading sommeliers, chefs and restaurateurs, as well as in roundups of exciting restaurants in different categories, from bucket-list destinations to restaurants with super-value wine lists. Sign up for our free Private Guide to Dining email newsletter so you don’t miss anything!