San Baylon in Rome Earns 2026 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence

San Baylon, the restaurant at the five-star Palazzo Ripetta in central Rome, has earned a 2026 Wine Spectator Award of Excellence, the American magazine's recognition of restaurants with outstanding wine lists.

Presented since 1981, Wine Spectator's Restaurant Awards rank among the most trusted benchmarks in American wine culture. This year, more than 4,000 restaurants across all 50 states and 87 countries earned a place on the list. The Award of Excellence recognizes wine programs that offer a well-chosen range of quality producers and a thoughtful match to the menu in both style and price.

A List Built as a Journey

What distinguishes San Baylon is how its list is assembled. Rather than a standard index by region, its menu of more than 170 labels reads as a journey, with chapters that group wines by character and place: Il Tempo dello Champagne, Vini di Altitudine (high-altitude wines), Vini di Mare (coastal, saline wines), Vini di Vulcano (volcanic-soil wines from Etna, Vesuvius and Vulture), Le Grandi Famiglie Italiane and Sguardi dal Mondo.

Italy's landmark estates — Sassicaia, Masseto, Ornellaia, Biondi-Santi and the great names of Barolo, Barbaresco and Amarone — sit alongside the houses of Champagne and Burgundy and Bordeaux classics, with small artisanal growers throughout. The list closes with a section of house-made and nonalcoholic fermentations, including kombucha and water kefir, created to pair with the kitchen — a nod to the growing appetite for lighter, lower-alcohol drinking.

"Wine is part of how we tell the story of a meal here. We built the list as a conversation with the kitchen — Italy's great estates and the houses of Champagne next to small growers and even our own fermentations — so every bottle has a reason to be on the table. To have that recognized by Wine Spectator means a great deal to our team," said Alessandro Strazzanti, food and beverage manager.

A Destination in the Historic Center

San Baylon occupies a 17th-century building between Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps, renovated in the 1960s to a design by the Italian architect Luigi Walter Moretti and now part of the Relais & Châteaux collection. The kitchen, led by Executive Chef Christian Spalvieri, turns out contemporary Italian cooking rooted in seasonal Italian ingredients. Minutes from the city's most-walked piazzas, the restaurant has become a destination for travelers and Romans looking to eat and drink well in the historic center.

San Baylon will be featured among the 2026 winners in Wine Spectator's Restaurants issue. The full list of winners is available at WineSpectator.com/Restaurants.

About Palazzo Ripetta

Palazzo Ripetta is a five-star hotel located between Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna, on the central Via di Ripetta in Rome. Housed in a historic building dating to the 1600s and renovated in the 1960s to a design by architect Luigi Walter Moretti — one of the most eminent figures in 20th-century Italian architecture — the hotel combines history, art and design. Authentic 1960s interiors blend with a contemporary renovation that adds a modern sense of luxury. The property comprises 78 rooms, five naturally lit meeting and event rooms, the San Baylon Restaurant and Baylon Cocktail Bar & Bistrot with internal secret garden, and the rooftop bar Etere.

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