queen9play Where to Drink Wine in Montreal

Montreal is one of the best cities in North America to drink wine. Great lists are plentiful and relatively inexpensive, particularly for Americans who will benefit from a favorable exchange rate. And invariably, in many of the best wine bars and restaurantsqueen9play, the wine is natural.

Natural wine is huge in Montreal. It dominates many of the lists in the casual, unpretentious bars and restaurants I sought out on a midsummer visit, and it shows up at the sorts of high-end places that adorn best-restaurant lists, like Toqué, long a standard-bearer, which indeed has a terrific wine list.

Toqué is great, but on this trip I was looking for more relaxed places, the kind where you feel comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt. These are the true tests of a top wine-drinking city. You expect a great list in the most acclaimed restaurants, not in neighborhood spots.

These nine restaurants, in no particular order, are among the best such places Montreal has to offer. I loved them. But they are just the beginning of the city’s riches. Some, like Alep, a Syrian-Armenian restaurant with an astounding list, were closed for vacation during my visit. Others, like Gia, Beba and Bar Annette, I ran out of time to visit. But the following list is an excellent start for your own exploration.

ImageLe Violon in Le Plateau is an ideal neighborhood restaurant.Credit...Hubert Hayaud for The New York TimesLe Violon

This intimate neighborhood restaurant in Le Plateau, owned by two acclaimed local chefs, Danny Smiles and Mitch Laughren, specializes in thoughtful, beautifully balanced dishes composed of local, seasonal ingredients. One appetizer combined the sharpness of onion, the sweetness of cantaloupe and the lush richness of unpasteurized sheep’s cheese. A main course of black bass with peas, waxy flat beans, green peas and sorrel butter was a bright orchestration of flavors.

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