Carlton, Spoon among restaurants that received wine awards

Pittsburgh has a few more reasons to pop the cork this year.

Four Western Pennsylvania restaurants have been recognized by Wine Spectator for outstanding wine programs with the magazine's 2016 Restaurant Awards.

The awards, which the magazine began giving annually in 1981, include three tiers of prestige:

• The Grand Award, the highest honor, given to 88 restaurants worldwide

• The Best of Award of Excellence, given to 1,093 restaurants

• The Award of Excellence, awarded to 2,414 restaurants

Though no area restaurants earned a Grand Award, four were given the Best of Award of Excellence: The Carlton, Downtown; Lautrec, at Nemacolin in Farmington; Off the Hook, Warrendale; and Spoon, East Liberty.

“It's one of the things that sets us apart from competitors,” says Kevin Joyce, proprietor of The Carlton. “Credible people judged what you do and put their stamp of approval on it.”

Restaurants apply for the awards by submitting wine lists and dinner menus to a team of a dozen Wine Spectator editors tasked with reviewing and judging thousands of submissions. Entries are judged on the diversity, breadth and affordability of their wine lists, in addition to how well the wine selection complements the dinner menu, and their “deep commitment to wine.”

“We want to see wine directors put their stamp on wine lists,” says Gillian Sciaretta, director of the awards.

Joyce, whose restaurant had the Award of Excellence annually from 1995 to 2015, doesn't take the upgrade lightly.

“It always bothered me,” he says, about not earning the higher distinction.“I started to think we were deserving back around 2000.”

While restaurants like The Carlton and Lautrec — which has received the award every year since 2011 — are regulars on the magazine's list, Spoon and Off the Hook, which opened in 2008 and 2013 respectively, are joining them for the first time this year.

“It's a great thing for our team,” says Spoon general manager John Wabeck. “Hopefully, over the course of the year, we can see a nice little increase in wine sales,”

Wabeck's restaurant specializes in wines imported from France, Spain and Italy, in addition to an “encyclopedia” of pinot noir from California and Oregon, he says.

Creating an attractive wine list in Pittsburgh presents a different challenge for Wabeck than in less frugal cities.

“Pittsburgh is a little different. People don't spend as much money on wine,” Wabeck says about the pricing considerations.

Off the Hook's wine list, which includes more than 600 selections, also offers many affordable choices.

In an effort to help readers taste the thousands of awarded wine lists for themselves, Wine Spectator recently launched a new Restaurants Award app, which allows users to search and locate the awarded restaurants. The app, which is free to download, also provides information about restaurants' wine strengths, pricing and selection count.

Matt Zabierek is a Tribune-Review staff writer. He can be reached at mzabierek@tribweb.com.