Best Restaurants For Wine 2018: Maryland Has 43 Award Winners

BALTIMORE, MD — Cheers, Maryland. Wine Spectator, one of the world’s leading authorities on wine, has assembled its 2018 list of the Best Restaurants for Wine, based not only on the breadth of vintages in their cellars but also how well wine is paired with entrees. In Maryland, 43 restaurants made the prestigious list of 3,759 restaurants worldwide with outstanding wine selections, ranging from venues in Baltimore and Bethesda to Annapolis, Havre de Grace and Columbia.

The lifestyle magazine on wine and wine culture gave awards across three categories — Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence and the Grand Award, which went to only 91 restaurants around the world. Wine Spectator experts inspect all candidates for the Grand Award to evaluate both quality of the dining experience and the cellar.

This award is given to restaurants with world-class cellars and wine lists that typically feature 1,000 or more selections, a breadth of top producers, and outstanding depth in mature vintages and selection of large-format bottles. Restaurants in this category are also evaluated on the presentation of the wine list and the harmony with the menu.

In Maryland, 12 restaurants won the Best of Award of Excellence, while 31 received the Award of Excellence. (For more news like this, get Patch's real-time news alerts and free morning newsletters. Like us on Facebook. Also, download the free Patch iPhone app or free Patch Android app.)

Here are all Wine Spectator listings for Maryland venues:

BEST OF AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
(1,215 restaurants nationwide)

• The Capital Grille, 500 E. Pratt St., Baltimore
• Wit & Wisdom, Four Seasons Baltimore, 200 International Drive, Baltimore
• Bygone, Four Seasons Baltimore, 400 International Drive, Baltimore
• Tagliata, 1012 Fleet St., Baltimore
• Magdalena, The Ivy Hotel, 205 E. Biddle St., Baltimore
• The Black Olive, 814 S. Bond St., Baltimore
• Bas Rouge, 19 Federal St., Easton
• Horizons Oceanfront Restaurant, Clarion Resort Fontainebleau Hotel, 10100 Coastal Highway, Ocean City
• Lewnes' Steakhouse, Fourth St. and Severn Ave., Annapolis
• The Oregon Grille, 1201 Shawan Road, Hunt Valley
• The Smokehouse Restaurant at Antrim 1844, Antrim 1844 Hotel, 30 Trevanion Road, Taneytown
• Voltaggio Brothers Steak House, MGM National Harbor, 101 MGM National Ave.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE
(2,453 restaurants nationwide)

• Sullivan's Steakhouse, 1 E. Pratt St., Baltimore
• Fogo de Chão, 600 E. Pratt St., Baltimore
• Morton's, The Steakhouse, 300 S. Charles St., Baltimore
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, Pier 5 Hotel, 711 Eastern Ave., Baltimore
• The Rusty Scupper Restaurant & Bar, 402 Key Highway, Baltimore
• Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar, 720 Aliceanna St., Baltimore
• Azumi, Four Seasons Baltimore, 725 Aliceanna St., Baltimore
• The Oceanaire Seafood Room, 801 Aliceanna St., Baltimore
• The Prime Rib, Horizon House Building, 1101 N. Calvert St., Baltimore
• Ouzo Bay, 1001 Lancaster St., Baltimore
• Bond Street Social, 901 S. Bond St., Baltimore
• Gordon Ramsay Steak, Horseshoe Casino Baltimore, 1525 Russell St., Baltimore
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, 1777 Reisterstown Road, Pikesville
• Pure Wine Café, 8210 Main St., Ellicott City
• CuVino Trattoria.Pizza.Enoteca, 31 A E. Padonia Road, Timonium
• Del Frisco's Grille, 11800 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda
• Facci Ristorante, 7530 Montpelier Road, Laurel
• Facci Ristorante, 11095 Resort Road, Ellicot City
• Fish by José Andrés, 101 National Ave., Oxon Hill
• Grapes Wine Bar, 1410 Forest Drive, Annapolis
• Jaleo, 7271 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda
• Morton's, The Steakhouse, 7400 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, 301 Severn Ave., Annapolis
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, 106 Crown Park Ave., Gaithersburg
• Ruth's Chris Steak House, 1110 Town Center Blvd., Odenton
• Seasons 52, 10300 Little Patuxent Parkway, Columbia
• Seasons 52, 11414 Rockville Road, North Bethesda
• The Capital Grille, 5310 Western Ave., Chevy Chase
• The Chop House, 1915 Towne Centre Blvd., Annapolis
• The Vineyard Wine Bar, 142 N. Washington St., Havre de Grace
• Wilcom's Inn, 11234 Fingerboard Road, Monrovia

Wine Spectator’s 2018 Restaurant Award winners range from neighborhood wine bars that serve small plates to opulent palaces with star chefs and elaborate tasting menus. Getting a mention on it is a pretty big deal for the restaurants.

“A Wine Spectator award tells our guests — current and potential — that our program has been vetted by a panel of experts and deemed amongst the best in the world,” Erik Segelbaum, corporate wine director for the Starr Restaurants group, said in a news release.

Segelbaum, whose restaurants won 16 Wine Spectator awards this year, said they tell “wine-loving guests that visiting one of our restaurants is time and money well spent.” The awards are well regarded domestically and internationally, he said.

“There is no doubt that Wine Spectator reviews and awards are held in the highest regard in the domestic and international community,” he said in the release. “Awards of this nature show our wine-loving guests that visiting one of our restaurants is time and money well spent.”

The restaurants recognized by Wine Spectator are in all 50 U.S. states and 75 countries.

Click here see all the Grand Award winners.

Click here to peruse all winners by metropolitan area.

Photo via Shutterstock / media_digital