Heading here with some civilians soon who appreciate wine but are no means geeks-enjoy both whites and reds. I’m having a hard time finding anything here not marked up 4x! Any diamonds in the rough?
http://www.fernrestaurant.com/file/2126/Fern%20Wine%20List%20UPDATED_6.27.14.pdf
Make sure you drop Carlos Delpin a PM, he lives in PR and can make some restaurant recos. He took me to a really swanky place back in December: Santaella. We did BYOB so cannot comment on wine list. Cocktails were spectacular.
Thank you Robert
The $17 pour of Santa Margherita PG says it all. Heck you can get a finger of Pappy 20 for that out here, almost.
The Coors Light or Corona @ $7 seem to be the best values.
I’d probably go with the Champalou Vouvray and Ridge Geyserville, as both should be enjoyable and are merely overpriced and not ridiculously overpriced. That said, I tend to judge restaurant markups more by the actual markup in dollars than by percentage, as my bank account is directly impacted by the former but not the latter.
Doesn’t it?
Also, thanks Mike. Good suggestions.
The arneis is only painful, not blindingly excrutiating. The 2001 Lopez de Heredia ‘Viña Tondonia’ Reserva is a little more than twice retail (as opposed to 3.5-4X, which most seem to be) and is a very good wine, though still very, very young.
Painful!
At the low end of this list is
Chianti Classico, San Felice Agricola 2010
It’s a $15 wine being sold for about $50, but at least it will drink well. I had one the other night and it has bright cherry fruit with good acidity. So if your meal would benefit from a easy-drinking but real chianti…
2007 Ridge Monte Bello at $220 is about 1.5 retail, but probably would need a lot of decant time.
Sent you a PM. In defense of Puerto Rico, wine mark ups are fair at most restaurants. Wine lists are not great but pricing is decent. Having said, Fern at the St. Regis is not really representative of Puerto Rico and charges mark ups that destination hotels tend to get away with.
Cheers.
This is the main restaurant at the St. Regis if I recall right? I solved the problem by bringing 7-8 bottles when we went there a while back. Seemed corkage friendly at this and the other venues at the resort. When we had apps on the veranda in the back overlooking the water (right below Fern), we opened a nice bottle of Champagne and they didn’t even charge us any corkage out there.
FYI, if you have the choice, request a room closer to the main buildings/pool. Some rooms can be pretty far away and either a wait for a golf cart shuttle or quite a long walk.
Thanks to all for the great feedback. Carlos, PM sent.