.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;}
If you can’t find a wine that you like at Sbrocco, you might want to consider becoming a beer drinker.

The Court Avenue restaurant and wine bar boasts about 1,000 wine selections in its basement, which operates as both a retail wine shop and an extensive cellar from which diners can receive expert assistance in choosing a bottle to go with dinner. That’s in addition to about 200 selections to choose from on Sbrocco’s wine list.

Sbrocco, which opened less than three years ago, has gained a reputation that has many Des Moines wine lovers mentioning it in the same sentence with 801 Steak and Chophouse and other restaurants with long-established wine lists.

“Technically, we’re the largest wine list in town with this in the basement, and I like having that as a feather in my cap,” said Tim Grimes, Sbrocco’s general manager, who maintains the restaurant’s extensive wine collection.

Sbrocco is illustrative of a maturing restaurant scene in Greater Des Moines that’s reaching new heights of sophistication in the wine-and-food experiences it is able to offer its customers, say observers.

“I’ve been enthused by the level of confidence and enthusiasm for what they’re doing,” said Tom Lally, sales manager for Okoboji Wines, an Iowa City-based distributor that supplies restaurants throughout the state. “I think it’s come up a lot in the past five years, and I think the wine lists reflect that. And I think the attitude generally in Iowa has changed. (Restaurants are) more willing to try new things, and that’s coinciding with more things being available.”

Pinot noir is very popular currently, and many people are checking out more Mediterranean wines, Lally said. Django, another newcomer that has quickly gained fans since opening a year and a half ago, is bringing in more Mediterranean-style wines “at decent price points,” he said.

Django’s wine list seeks to offer a French equivalent to each California wine, said Maria Torres, one of the restaurant’s managers. “We don’t have a lot of high-end, high-dollar wine; most of it’s mid-range,” she said, like a $50 Siduri pinot noir from Oregon, or an $80 Morgan LL chardonnay from California.

“We try to be a little more on the boutique side, just trying to pick the best, not necessarily obscure, but ones that you might not find at a local store,” Torres said. For the past year, the restaurant has also encouraged customers to bring their own wines by forgoing a corkage fee.

Another restaurant on many people’s short list of favorite wine destinations is Bistro Montage, whose chef and owner, Enosh Kelley, enjoys showcasing outstanding wines.

“I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by customers who can buy some crazy-expensive wines, and so I get to sample them,” said Kelley, who bought the restaurant six years ago.

There has been “a huge growth” in people’s knowledge of wines in the past several years, he said, which has helped to demystify wine and embolden people to try new varieties.

“There’s maybe a little more appreciation for French wines now in Des Moines,” said Kelley, whose wine list also has American, Australian, Spanish and Argentinian wines, among others.

Just as the same wine can be excellent one day and not the next, “a wine list is always changing, always evolving,” he said. “It’s always a challenge.”

Bistro’s wine list once featured Italian wines; as it evolved, Kelley decided to eliminate those in favor of other wines. He also offers very few zinfandels, and like many others, finds pinot noirs, particularly from California, to be very attractive right now.

“When it comes down to choosing wines, I focus on the varietials,” Kelley said. “I focus on the top 10 grapes that you really need to know to produce the best wine, such as pinot noir, Riesling, chardonnay, the ones we’re all familiar with. (It’s) understanding what that varietal can do, what it should be like, what it shouldn’t be like and finding regions where it proliferates the best.”

Constant change is also a hallmark of Sbrocco’s collection, said Stephen Volkmer-Jones, one of the restaurant’s wine experts who guide customers in making their selections. “We’re really good about trying new things and looking for new things that aren’t out there everywhere,” he said. “You’ll see some overlap, but most of it’s stuff that’s just not going to be on grocery store shelves because they don’t have somebody who’s going to help you actively make a selection.”

Sbrocco charges a $5 corkage fee for wines purchased from its wine store stock, compared to a $15 corkage fee for a wine that a customer brings in.

The process of finding new wines for its collection is “probably not as sexy as you think,” said Grimes, a former wine wholesaler has relationships with each of the wholesalers throughout the state. “I’m always just constantly looking for the newest things I can find that taste great and that kind of match up with my palate, so I can sell those to customers and have something new and fresh all the time.

“From a customer perspective, what they need to know about Sbrocco is they might find a wine here one day and not find it the next because I’ve moved on to something new,” he said. “That’s my whole goal, to keep things fresh and interesting, just like we do with our menus upstairs in the restaurant.”

Helping people to choose the ideal wine for their taste is a process of its own.

“You almost have to (go through a series of questions) because people are starting from different points,” Sbrocco wine expert Stephen Volkmer-Jones said. “There are people who come in and want to think about the wine first. Then it’s a matter of finding out, do they want a red or white to begin with? Then we build from there as far as degree of body weight; whether they like something on the drier, more structured side or more sweet. So you narrow it down to categories.

“Then there are people who come in who are going to decide what they’re going to eat first, so that adds that extra element that this is something that will go well with that food. A lot of people will turn to us and want to know how we can help make that selection. And there are novices that come in and say, ‘I don’t know what I like.'”

The restaurant recently began booking private “Chef’s Table” events each Tuesday night, in which Executive Chef Andrew Meek offers entrees paired with Grimes’ wine selections.

Though a relatively new restaurant, Sbrocco boasts a staff that’s collectively been in the business several decades, among them Mark Murphy, former general manager and wine buyer for Splash Seafood Bar and Grill.

Volkmer-Jones, who was general manager of the former Guido’s at the Savery Renaissance Hotel, worked for a number of years for Glazers, a wine wholesaler, selling to restaurants.

“I guess it was the ideal world as far as continuity, because I had been in the business and knew what it took to be on that end of it,” he said. “It got me knowing who’s active, who cares about wine in their restaurant and who doesn’t, and it gave me a chance to meet a lot of the people getting into the business and getting to know them.”

Sbrocco has also been successful in building relationships with its customers, who have come to rely on the staff’s taste in wines.

“It’s fun, because a lot of people ask me to sort mixed cases and leave it up to me,” Grimes said. “That’s where it’s a lot of fun for me, and to keep them coming back is great.”