Bern’s Recommendations

Despite living just across the bridge in St. Pete, I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t frequent Bern’s as often as I’d like.

My boss gave me a fairly generous Bern’s gift card a few years ago that I am finally planning to use next month as a birthday treat to myself.

My question to Bern’s regulars is whether there is a particular Somm I should ask for and whether you had any particularly good values recently from their cellar (preferably Burgundies, Rhône blends, aged Bordeaux, or Barolos).

Any other tips most welcome as well! I think the last time I was there was around 2 years ago.

Thanks!

Your best bet is to ask for Brad Dixon and let him know your looking for aged Bordeaux/Barolo etc. I’ve done this many times and he never disappoints.

They still have a deep Bordeaux section and we’ve enjoyed some great bottles there.

Impressive!

Whatever happened to the first rule of Berns was not talking about Berns?

In all seriousness, I’d pound the by-the-glass selections in the bar on my next visit.

You wouldn’t happening to be referring to the [deleted due to the what happens at stays at rule].

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I’ve had great results working with Eric Renaud, too. I think you can reach either Brad or Eric using bshsommelier@bernssteakhouse.com. Just let them know what you’re looking for and your budget. When I’ve done this, they’ve come back with several options. We were able to narrow the choices down to a few bottles and then make the final selections when we arrived for dinner.

I almost always start there as I peruse the wine menu for my bottle choice. Always something fun on that BTG list.

Commercial post: my FL distributor sells some of my wine to Bern’s.

My last trip Eric took care of us, and boy, did he take care of us. While the selection of aged Bordeaux is excellent, the selection of aged Burgundy is just as good and a lot rarer. The 1970 Latour Corton Grancey was very great wine… I was there a few months ago and got the next to last bottle (IIRC ~$120). You can safely assume the last one is gone… if not, grab it!

There are other restaurants and retailers in this country with decent selections of aged Bordeaux. Burg, not so much. I did not look at Barolo, but I don’t think they are quite as strong on well-aged Rhones.

Dan Kravitz

Definitely contact eric or brad ahead of time. Pickings of many mature wines has gotten very slim. At least the ones I would want to drink.

Thanks to everyone for their recommendations. I’ve reached out to Eric and Brad via email and will let you all know how it goes (dinner is in mid-July).

If you have a larger group, go for the bigger bottle options. They have some really nice ones.

Not that you don’t bear any responsibility:)

Just realized that I forgot to post the results!

Dinner was amazing and Brad made an excellent recommendation for a 1990 Tenuta Carretta Barolo Poderi Cannubi. It was a perfect pairing for our steak and was just coming into its prime (with several more years left). The fact that it was a birth-year wine for my girlfriend was an added bonus.

All in all a wonderful experience and thank you to everyone who posted their suggestions here.

All of a sudden I’m feeling really old.