Los Olivos, Santa Barbara County, California— Sam and Shawnda Marmorstein, owners of the Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café, are thrilled to announce that for the first time, the Café’s wine list has been honored with the coveted 2012 Wine Spectator “Best of Award of Excellence”— one of only 878 restaurants in the world that received this coveted ‘two wine glass’ award. In previous years, the Café has been honored with the “Award of Excellence” also known as the ‘one wine glass.’

According to editors at Wine Spectator magazine, the “Best of Award of Excellence” is “created to give special recognition to restaurants that clearly exceed the requirements of the Award of Excellence. These lists typically offer 400 or more selections, along with superior presentation, and display either vintage depth, with several vertical offerings of top wines, or excellent breadth across several wine regions.” (In 2012 worldwide, there were only 2,842 restaurant winners of the basic Award of Excellence also known as the “one wine glass” and 75 winners of the highest Grand Award, the “three wine glass.”)

Sam Marmorstein stated, “We are very honored to receive this Best of Award of Excellence ‘two wine glass’ rating for our list. And it is especially rewarding since the Café is only one out of only 34 restaurants that got the ‘two wine glass’ award that also received the “inexpensive wine pricing” designation. Wine pricing ratings are determined by Wine Spectator judges, to describe the overall pricing of the wine list, taking into account both the general markup of wines offered and the number of wines at high and low price points. “Inexpensive lists” offer many bottles for less than $50, while also employing a below-normal markup (generally considered to be 2 to 2.5 times the wholesale bottle price). For more information about the awards, visit here and here.

About: The Los Olivos Wine Merchant & Café was named one of the top 50 “Most Notable Wine Lists in the USA” for 2011 by OpenTable.com Located in the heart of Santa Barbara County’s wine country at 2879 Grand Avenue in downtown Los Olivos, the casual yet elegant Café (as seen in the award-winning movie SIDEWAYS) serves fresh, local wine-friendly cuisine for lunch and dinner daily from 11:30 AM to 9:00 PM. The Wine Merchant features over 500 local and international vintages and is the exclusive distributor of owner Sam Marmorstein’s Bernat Wines. For more information, call 805-688-7265 or visit www.LosOlivosCafe.com or www.BuySantaBarbaraWine.com

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