Two highly regarded restaurants in Steamboat Springs have earned their place on the list of restaurants winning the 2024 Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator Magazine.

“This is our first year winning this award,” Primrose’s Collin Kelley said. “It takes a lot to get your program built up to being worthy of receiving one of these awards and then you have to maintain it.”

Primrose joined Harwigs in winning an Award of Excellence this year, and the list will be published in the August edition of Wine Spectator Magazine.

Kelley said it has taken Primrose three full years to build up the restaurant’s wine program where it needed to be to win the award. He said Primrose should have no problem maintaining the honor and is already looking forward to forward to stepping up a level in the next year or two because Wine Spectator awards restaurants at three levels.

“We’re actually very close to having enough wines for that award (at the next level),” Kelley said. “They look at both the depth of the wines you have and also the breadth.”

The first level is the Award of Excellence, which was given to 2,150 restaurants that offer a wine list of at least 90 selections and feature a well-chosen assortment of quality producers along with a thematic match to the menu in both price and style. The restaurants on this list are said to deliver sufficient choice to satisfy discerning wine lovers.

The next level is the Best of Award of Excellence, which features 1,531 restaurants with wine lists displaying excellent breadth across multiple wine-growing regions with a significant vertical depth of top producers, along with superior presentation. These wine lists typically offer at least 350 selections, and the restaurants are destinations for serious wine lovers, showing a deep commitment to wine both in the cellar and through the service team.

At the highest level, 96 restaurants across the country have earned the Grand Award, which goes to establishments that feature wine lists showing an uncompromising, passionate devotion to the quality of their wine programs.

These restaurants typically feature 1,000 or more selections of wine and deliver serious breadth of top producers, outstanding depth in mature vintages and a selection of large-format bottles. They must also show their wine list is in harmony with the menu and offer superior presentation, as the award is only given to the restaurants offering the highest level of wine service.

“Having the Award of Excellence is definitely a feather in your cap,” said JJ Jenny, the chef at Harwigs. “We’re very proud that we have received the Award of Excellence every year and that we have consistently met or exceeded those expectations.”

Jenny estimated that Harwigs has been honored with the Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator for the past 20 years, and said they don’t take that award lightly.

“When you win the Award of Excellence, you know you’re going to naturally get some of those people that look through Wine Spectator in search of the places that have a list that exemplifies that excellence,” Jenny said.

In Steamboat, wine lovers can now find two local businesses that offer those kinds of lists and want to share what they have in their collections.

“I think it just solidifies our place within the Steamboat dining culture as the destination for fine wine and wine service,” Kelley said. “We have a full-time sommelier on staff, I’m a sommelier and many of our servers are sommeliers. People who are serious about wine in Steamboat know that they can come to Primrose and confidently have the experience that they want to have.”