Wine Spectator Unveils 2023 Restaurant Award Winners

Dining out has been increasingly popular across the globe. Over 3500 restaurants have been awarded for their wine offerings.

The most recent winner of this award included Vast Restaurant, which serves steaks and other American food items high up on Devon Tower in downtown Oklahoma City. (Courtesy of Vast)

It’s a time to be hospitable as restaurants find innovative ways to please the needs of their customers as well as attract a larger audience. With advanced AI and other technology being incorporated into our lives, restaurateurs and wine professionals are becoming vital, providing assistance, advice, and a sense of community even ChatGPT cannot achieve.

There is evidence of this in our new listing that includes more than 3,500 eateries awarded Restaurant Awards from Wine Spectator in 2023. With outstanding wine offerings, this year’s winners come from every state and over 75 nations and territories. The awards are presented in three different categories: Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence, and the Grand Award.

This year, we’re happy to include a new country on our list of top award winners. It’s Ivory Coast. “We are extremely happy to be the first establishment in Ivory Coast to receive such acknowledgement. We hope this recognition will encourage other establishments within the region to raise their wine selections to international standards,” said Nicolas Delsuc, the owner and director of wine of the brand new Award of Excellence winner Gina by Zanoni, located 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!'”

Despite the issues from an epidemic, eateries worldwide have discovered ways to stand out and differentiate themselves through wine and surpass their previous achievements in the newly renovated Best of Award of Excellence winner Hermitage Inn in West Dover, Vt. The owner and director of wine Mary Lou Ricci had been anxious about acquiring the restaurant with such an extensive background. Her husband and wife bought Hermitage Inn at the beginning of April 2021, despite the ongoing spreading of COVID-19. It was closed for three years. “After only 18 months after opening,” she explained, “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 amount of its wine menu during the past year after receiving its Award of Excellence in 2022. “We are passionate about wines,” Ricci said. “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 historic Hermitage Inn was newly owned in Vermont and upgraded to the Best of Award of Excellence after doubling the wine choices.

This Award of Excellence is given to restaurants with well-curated lists of 90 choices or more. The lists comprise top wineries and producers that aren’t readily available in the local wine stores or consumed at home. The wines also match the restaurant’s cuisine in price and style, providing customers with a complete experience. In the year 2000, restaurants received this Award of Excellence.

These Best of Award of Excellence winners, 1,411 by 2023, take their efforts to the next level. The lists contain 350 wines or more and cover a variety of styles and regions, and depth of vintage by presenting vertical collections of renowned wines. They also provide education and training opportunities for employees to assist customers in making informed choices about their wine.

The program’s most prestigious award is the Grand Award – the highest award for restaurants that have world-class wine programs. The award is awarded to establishments that demonstrate an unwavering commitment and determination to developing thoughtful, perfect wine programs and keeping them up and growing yearly. The list of wines, which often contains more than 1,000 choices, provides a vast selection of top wineries and incredible depth in the older vintages and bottles of various sizes. Alongside the excellent quality of presentation for their lists and an excellent alignment of their food menus, the establishments provide the best wine service. Wine Spectator reviewers scrutinize all candidates in the race for their Grand Award to evaluate the overall dining experience and conditions of the cellar. In 2023 we recognize the 93 Grand Award winners.

For more information about these top restaurants to enjoy wine, check out WineSpectator.com’s Free-Access Restaurant Search with the entire list the Wine Spectator’s 2023 Restaurant Award winners searchable by name, location, type of cuisine, and wine strengths, as well as pricing and the award level, for Restaurant recommendations while on the move, look at Wine Spectator’s Restaurant Awards application accessible on the App Store. All award winners will be included in the August. 31, 2023 edition of Wine Spectator (available in newsstands on July 11), which provides a deeper into how restaurants are making a living against technological advances.

All through the year, stay up-to-date with the latest trends and news in the field of restaurant and get to know more about Restaurant Award winners in Q&As with renowned sommeliers, chefs, and restaurateurs, as in rounds of restaurants that are exciting across a variety of categories, from bucket list destinations to establishments with high-value wine lists. Join our no-cost Private Guide to Dining email newsletter so you aren’t missing anything!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *