Wine Enthusiast’s yearly rundown of America’s 100 Best Wine Restaurants is out, and two of St. Louis’ top restaurants have garnered spots on the list: Reeds American Table and Sardella. The list is the culmination of a year’s worth of research by Wine Enthusiast editors, who scour the best restaurants in the country for superior wine programs.
This is the third year that Reeds has made the list, but the first year since Alisha Blackwell-Calvert took over as wine director.
“I’ve been with Reeds for about a year and a half now, but I’ve only been wine director for less than a year, and it’s my first time being a wine director anywhere,” Blackwell-Calvert said. “It’s really exciting. Following Andrey [Ivanov, Reed’s former wine director], those were some big shoes to fill.”
The accolade marks Sardella’s first time on the list.
“We’re really excited as a team,’ said Sardella general manager Bess Kretsinger Heffernan. “We spend a lot of time working with everyone on staff, getting their input and finding out what they’re interested in. It’s a very collaborative [wine] list.”
Matt Sorrell is staff writer at Sauce Magazine.
This article appears in June 2018.