The New House Wine: Bespoke Bottles with a Personal Touch

As the restaurant landscape grows increasingly crowded, how do you make a lasting impression? Sure, you can bring in a star chef or mix unexpected cuisines—but some restaurants are going further by spotlighting something more personal: their own wine.

A growing number of American restaurants are taking wine curation to the next level by creating private-label bottles. These house wines aren’t just marketing gimmicks with stylish labels pasted on bulk juice—they’re the product of thoughtful collaboration between restaurant teams and winemakers, designed to complement specific menus and elevate the overall dining experience.

From coastal California to downtown Chicago to Virginia wine country, restaurants are teaming up with wineries to craft signature wines that reflect their identity. The result? Unique flavor profiles, approachable prices, and deeper connections between diners and the places they love.

Telling a Story in Every Bottle

Those deeper connections often begin with something simple: how well a wine pairs with the food. That was the driving force for Sam Bogue, beverage director at San Francisco’s Flour + Water Hospitality Group, known for its robust pastas and rustic pizzas.

“Our food leans rich and comforting,” Bogue says. “So it was paramount to bring a vivacious level of acidity and to bring to the table something to cut through the richness.”

During the pandemic, as hazy natural wines surged in popularity, inspiration struck. “It was a lightbulb moment,” he recalls. “We said, ‘Why don’t we create a slightly hazy orange wine that mimics the color of actual pasta water?’”

That idea became Pasta Water, a Muscat blend that now shares the spotlight with Mortadella, a Nero d’Avola rosé, and Pasta Sauce, a chillable Sangiovese-forward red. All are made in partnership with Subject to Change Wine Co. in Richmond, California, and adhere to principles of organic farming and low-intervention winemaking. Together, they make up the restaurant’s signature house wine program, which now sells around 750 cases annually.

The wines are designed to be accessible—priced at $15 by the glass and $55 per bottle—and serve as consistent staples amid a rotating list. They also support small-scale California producers aligned with the group’s environmental values.

"We want them to feel convivial," says Bogue of the wines. "There’s no pressure to spend at a high level to enjoy these, and that was one of the final steps to make our beverage program feel more welcoming."

In addition to the Subject to Change wines, Bogue has added two more Bay Area collaborations: Bocca al Lupo, a Vermentino with Les Lunes Wine, and Big Night, a sparkling red inspired by Lambrusco, with Hammerling Wines.

Finding Solutions in Unexpected Places

While Flour + Water’s wines tell a story through the liquid, Michelin-starred Kato extends its narrative through the label.

Pairing Asian fare with an acid-driven Riesling or aromatic Gewürztraminer may be an easy (if predictable) choice, but Kato’s intricate Taiwanese-inspired menu demanded more thoughtful consideration. When the restaurant moved from a strip mall in West Los Angeles to a larger space in Downtown LA’s Arts District—complete with a liquor license—co-owner and wine director Ryan Bailey seized the opportunity to expand the cellar and curate more esoteric pairings for chef-partner Jon Yao’s complex dishes.

Bailey recalls struggling to find a match for one in particular: a delicate fish dish in a savory broth accented with fermented mustard greens.

After some trial and error, he discovered an unexpected fit in Savagnin, a white grape from France’s Jura region. The breakthrough came via his friend, winemaker Mike Lucia, who had recently acquired Cole Ranch—one of the only single-vineyard AVAs in the United States. Situated at higher elevation in Mendocino County, the vineyard had newly grafted Savagnin vines, a rarity outside of the Jura.

“Stylistically Savignan has good weight and body and high acidity,” Bailey says. “As it develops it gets a savory character to it. Most importantly it has texture and ripeness that gives it body that can hold up to a heartier sauce like a smoked fish bone broth or dan dan noodle with pork, or umami and soy flavors.”

Now in its fifth vintage, Kato’s Savagnin features label artwork by Yao’s grandfather—adding a deeply personal touch to this highly specific collaboration.

“We get to do something fun for the restaurant that you can’t find anywhere else,” Bailey says. “And it also skews toward the food.”

Breaking New Ground

Like pairing wine with Taiwanese fare, Indian cuisine can pose similar challenges. But Ajit and Sukhu Kalra, owners of Indus Progressive Indian in Highland Park, Illinois, understand that Indian food has far more to offer than just heat.

They created a menu that showcases popular Indian dishes like biryani and curries, while also showing the breadth of the cuisine with dishes like a spiced lamb burger served with their “chimmi-chutney” and halibut marinated in ginger, garlic, young coconut, and raw mango paste all steamed in a banana leaf. The self-proclaimed oenophiles wanted a light-bodied red wine that would go well with the various sauces and proteins on their menu.

“We wanted a wine that was more plush and soft, and something that would always complement and never try to compete,” explains Ajit Kalra. “We wanted something easy on the palate.”

Their answer came through a collaboration with winemaker Mike Kush of Chasing Harvest. Together, they developed The Indus Pinot, a terroir-driven 2021 Pinot Noir from New Zealand’s Central Otago region. The wine—light-bodied with cherry and raspberry notes, balanced acidity, and an herbaceous quality that pairs with cilantro and mint—has become the restaurant’s best-seller just four months after its debut.

 “By and large, overwhelmingly people have expressed a love for the pairing of this light bodied new world Pinot Noir with our food,” he adds.

Seeking Wine of a Certain Time and Place

Yes, wine can sometimes be tricky to pair with specific cuisines. Other times, it’s as natural as looking out your back door. There’s a familiar adage in the wine world: “What grows together goes together”—and that rings especially true in the heart of wine country. In this case, it’s Northern Virginia.

At Field & Main, a farm-to-table restaurant in Marshall, Virginia—about an hour west of Washington, D.C.—owner Neal Wavra has embraced local wine as a natural extension of his mission. Inspired by European neighborhood restaurants where house wines arrive in casual carafes and pair effortlessly with the food, Wavra set out to create a similar experience closer to home.

“We use local food and drink to connect with people and share a story, which makes the dining experience more impactful,” Wavra says. “Our guests can leave here and go visit that place.”

Since opening in 2016, Wavra has launched a wine-on-tap program in collaboration with Early Mountain Vineyards and expanded it to include a range of Virginia wineries. These include red, white, and rosé offerings from producers such as Michael Shaps, Pearmund Cellars, Anterra Wines, Slater Run Vineyards, and Boxwood Winery.

"It's a driving desire of having the pomp and circumstance of wine being taken away where it's well thought out and intentional, but doesn't require knowledge," explains Wavra, adding that, “One of the unique propositions of Virginia wine is people are drinking the arc of discovery” of an emerging wine region through these collaborations.

Celebrating Tradition and a Commitment to Quality

New Orleans is a city that celebrates joie de vivre on every corner—and nowhere is that more evident than in the storied French Quarter. At Brennan’s, the iconic restaurant dating back to 1946, tradition, festivity, and Champagne go hand in hand.

Dubbed “The Champagne House of the South,” Brennan’s boasts a cellar of 16,500 bottles, including around 100 Champagne selections. But it’s their own private-label Champagne that brings the celebratory spirit to life. The restaurant first partnered with Delamotte in 2018 to create a custom cuvée, then followed in 2024 with Brennan’s Essential by Piper-Heidsieck, an extra brut Champagne that extends the legacy of Ella Brennan.

"Champagne has always been essential to Brennan's," says Braithe Gill, beverage director for the Ralph Brennan Restaurant Group, who helped select the prized juice. "Ella wanted people to come in to celebrate. Happy noises were important to her—glasses clinking, laughter, etc."

The blend (45% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Meunier) was created specifically to pair with Brennan’s signature sauces and rich breakfast fare. At $24 by the glass and $120 per bottle ($95 during Bubbles at Brennan’s happy hour—a steal!), it’s a joyful expression of the restaurant’s enduring spirit.

Offering Affordable, Everyday Options

Popping Champagne is always fun, but sometimes guests simply want a quality wine they can enjoy any night of the week. That’s exactly what Ballyhoo Hospitality had in mind with the forthcoming 2023 Ballyhoo Red Blend.

Made primarily with Cabernet Sauvignon and rounded out with small amounts of Merlot and Petit Verdot, the California red will appear across the Ballyhoo portfolio—including modern steakhouse Sophia Steak, French-inspired Pomeroy, and red-sauce favorite DeNucci’s. The wine is dry with medium-to-high tannins, bright cherry and dark chocolate notes, and warm baking spice aromas. It’s equally at home alongside grilled steak, roast chicken, or a pepperoni pizza. The best part? It’s just $12 a glass or $48 a bottle.

“The driving force behind this was to have an affordable glass of wine,” says Justin Parramore, beverage manager at Sophia Steak and Petit Pomeroy. “We wanted to offer a value-driven experience.”

The idea began as a passion project from Ballyhoo president and COO Jon Farrer, who worked with Parramore and others on the beverage team to find a like-minded, family-owned winery. They landed on the Zonin family—known for their popular Italian Prosecco but also with vineyard holdings in California.

“We wanted to find quality wine and fruit we could get behind and present it at a value price point in the neighborhoods we’re in,” Parramore adds. “We don’t make destination restaurants, but neighborhood ‘Tuesday/Wednesday night’ restaurants.”

Whether in the city, wine country, or a favorite neighborhood joint, what unites all of these projects is intentionality. Whether it’s solving a tricky food pairing, celebrating regional producers, or offering standout value, these restaurant-driven wines reflect each establishment’s unique vision.

As diners increasingly seek more meaningful connections with restaurants, these bottles go beyond the standard wine list—they offer a liquid expression of the restaurant’s identity, crafted specifically for the food on the plate and the people in the seats.