Top wine spots: 23 Naples, Fort Myers, Marco, Bonita restaurants among best in world
Wine Spectator magazine has announced its annual “Restaurant Awards” winners for 2024.
Across all categories, Southwest Florida boasts 23 winners, with several restaurants making their debut.
Since its 1981 inception, this handy guide to 3,700 global dining spots with outstanding wine lists remains prestigious. Accolades are distributed across three tiers: Award of Excellence, Best of Award of Excellence, and most coveted of all, the rare Grand Award.
Restaurants are not judged for their overall quality but by the strength of the wine lists submitted to the elite judging panel comprising the magazine's top editors.
Fun fact: If you think one of their anointed winners is a dud, the editors want to know. Email me at [email protected].
How it works
Restaurants submit a non-refundable $695 application fee with their wine list, menus, inventory storage details and executive staff for the judges' assessment.
Here's the thing: Just because a restaurant applies, it doesn't necessarily earn a spot.
Case in point: Barry Larkin, co-owner of Seventh South and famous for his stellar craft cocktails, applied for recognition in 2023.
He received a rejection letter saying he didn't follow the requirements for listing producers, prices, vintages and appellations in the magazine's preferred method, which is posted on its website.
It proved to be a pricey lesson.
This year, Seventh South is successful.
What did Larkin do differently this go-round?
In addition to rewriting the list, he included the so-called "optional" cover letter.
"The cover letter helps explain our philosophy for pulling the list together as we did. It explains our style and how we match it up with our food," Larkin said.
Tier 1 winners
According to Wine Spectator, 2,150 restaurants earned an Award of Excellence, averaging 100 selections on wine lists.
New to the local list in alphabetical order:
Mastello, Fort Myers
Old Vines Naples (at Mercato)
Seventh South, Naples
Warren American Whiskey Kitchen, Naples
Repeat winners include:
Bar Tulia, Naples
Capital Grille, Naples, moved down a category from its 2023 Best of Award of Excellence
Marco Prime, Marco Island
Nosh on Naples Bay, Naples
Osteria Tulia, Naples
Oyster Society, Marco Island
Seasons 52, Naples
Terra Nostra, Fort Myers
USS Nemo, Naples
Who won in 2023? Wine Spectator's Restaurant Awards features 23 SW FL winning wine lists.
Tier 2
Earning a Best of Award of Excellence means a restaurant offers 350 or more selections from top producers, with trained staff to guide guests on pairings. Hosting wine-centric events can also play a factor.
Worldwide, 1,531 restaurants scored in this category, but locally, The French Brasserie Rustique was one of 13 restaurants praised by the magazine's assistant managing editor Collin Dreizen as a "rising star."
As Dreizen writes, "The restaurant is almost a portal to Paris, with its bistro seats, black-and-white tile floors, colorful murals and mirrors. Adding to the atmosphere, guests can dine outdoors beneath arches that recall the Parisian architecture of Baron Haussmann."
How did The French earn its promotion?
According to Marcello Palazzi, Campagna Hospitality Group’s director of operations and beverage director, "We elevated our wine program with a very deep selection of older, vertical vintages and focused on the strength of our Bordeaux selections. We also more than doubled our inventory to more than 375 labels."
Listed alphabetically, repeat winners include:
Angelina’s in Bonita Springs
Baleen at LaPlaya Resort, Naples
Ridgway Bar & Grill, Naples
Sails, Naples
Sale e Pepe, Marco Island
Sea Salt, Naples
Shula’s Steakhouse at Hilton Naples
The Cave Bistro & Wine Bar, Naples
Ta-da! Best in class
As for the Grand Award, only 96 restaurants worldwide are bestowed with this esteemed title and Florida boasts four winners.
One happens to be a pretty famous mom-and-pop in Naples.
The magazine's reporting team wrote, “This neighborhood gem relies on the wine passions of husband-and-wife owners Jacques and Lysielle Cariot, who opened Bleu Provence in 1999. Together, they’ve raised the bar for Naples’ wine scene, creating a diverse wine list that's especially strong in French selections that pair beautifully with the local seafood-focused menu.”
When Jacques Cariot was asked what it means to win again, his first word was "Wow."
While some restaurants think a top-heavy list with pages and pages of Petrus and California’s big reds might earn them the Grand, Bleu Provence’s list is driven by his passion for artisanal wines exuding terroir, which encompasses a region's plants, soil, climate and topography.
As an early advocate for lesser-known, more affordable appellations, including Jura, Beaujolais, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily, he initially didn’t realize his approach was a winning one because it’s an expression of the work he loves to do.
That vision surprised him when he received his first Grand Award 10 years ago because he never sought recognition at such a high international level.
“It’s very humbling and a blessing.”
Cariot’s son Clement is a member of the elite Court of Master Sommeliers who serves as the restaurant’s manager and sommelier.
The two view the list with a full-picture purview: Dad appreciates his son’s analytical approach to the nearly 6,000-label list as complementary to his intuition and feeling for wine.
On any given day, nearly 30,000 bottles are available at Bleu Provence.
“It’s a mountain of work, but it doesn’t feel like work because it’s become second nature.”
Florida’s other repeat winners include Berns in Tampa, HMF at The Breakers in Palm Beach and Marcello’s La Sirena in West Palm Beach.
There is no such thing as being grandfathered into a permanent spot because the magazine’s inspectors visit Grand Award-winning restaurants regularly.
The magazine's annual global restaurant awards issue hits newsstands in early July.
Diana Biederman is NDN's food and restaurant writer.
This article originally appeared on Naples Daily News: Wine Spectator's annual restaurant awards list names 23 local winners
