Sometimes the dining experience is about more than just the food. And, having the perfect wine to pair with your meal can turn what would have been just another good dinner into something special. With that in mind, here are 8 restaurants from across the country with a wine list capable of transforming any meal into a truly memorable one.

Dallas

Charlie Palmer

It's a new age, when cell phones navigate and home theater experiences can be had on media players barely larger than credit cards. Enter the touch-screen tablet wine list. Charlie Palmer's wine list is an ingenious harnessing of technology to help newbie drinkers overcome their fear of coming...More >>

Inside Charlie Palmer at The Joule

Denver

Palace Arms

A Penfolds shiraz from 2000. La Tache Burgundy, 1999. A Château Ausone Bordeaux, 1995, and a '98 Cheval Blanc. Need we go on? Okay, how about a bottle of 1990 Petrus? An '89 LaTour? Bottles of Lafite-Rothschild from (almost) every important year dating back to 1978, a cellar full of...More >>

Minneapolis

Spasso

Building a business by offering customers a good deal is a great way to stay afloat in today's bear market. Giving choice-loving Americans 1,600 different bottles of wine to pore over is another. More >>

New York

Xai Xai

If you'd also like a glass of wine with your snack and don't mind sitting a bit, go for the unusual dried-meat products at the South African wine bar Xai Xai. These include droewors (dried sausages of beef and lamb) and biltong (beef jerky), both chewy and yummy. You'll never look at a Slim Jim...More >>

An impressive array of South African wines at Xai Xai

Orange County

The Cellar

If you've ever wanted to dine at a beautiful French winery minus the chilly temperature and concrete floors that amplify your private conversations, then the Cellar is the perfect, romantic rendezvous. Modeled after French wine cellars in Burgundy, it's tucked away in Fullerton's...More >>

Phoenix

Fine's Cellar

We'd call this the best wine bar in town, except that Fine's Cellar is so much more than that -- it's a casual breakfast and lunch spot, a laid-back espresso and gelato bar, a wine boutique, and a hip bistro all rolled into one. You don't need a single sip of syrah to appreciate chef Cullen...More >>

Fine's Cellar specializes in wine-friendly food

San Francisco

Paréa Wine Bar and Cafe

The name is derived from one of those evocative, multilayered Greek phrases that's nearly impossible to translate, but if you think back to the last time you got together with a few good friends over a nice bottle of wine, the glow of the spirits enhancing the talk and the fellowship, you...More >>

St. Louis

The Vine Wine Bar & Bistro

The days when the dining-room captain would roll out the gueridon and proceed to carve, flambé and toss your food have pretty much passed. The thing that was most frequently tossed, of course, was the caesar salad. When you think about it, the caesar was an unlikely candidate to be...More >>