Oklahoma's Polo Grill Captures State's Only Best Of Award Of Excellence

Polo Grill was selected once again this year as a winner of Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence for outstanding wine program. The well-known Tulsa restaurant took home its first Best of Award of Excellence last year, after receiving the Award of Excellence for three consecutive years. Out of the 12 Oklahoma restaurants honored by the publication this year, Polo Grill received the most prestigious award.

The elite Best of Award of Excellence award is given to restaurants with wine lists that display vintage depth, including vertical offerings of top wines, as well as excellent breadth from several major wine-growing regions. Other factors considered in the judging are overall quality of the wine sections; pricing inventory in stock; and storage conditions. Winners are selected by the editorial board of Wine Spectator, the world's largest wine publication.

Proprietor chefs of Polo Grill, Robert and Ouida Merrifield, use wines to transform each dining experience at Polo Grill into an event. Their commitment to a quality wine program goes beyond the restaurant's 15,000-bottle cellar. The couple was recently selected to receive a fully funded tuition scholarship from Schramsberg Vineyards and Cellars to attend its Sparkling Wine Symposium at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley, Calif. The event, designed especially for chefs, offers an in-depth study course focusing on champagne and sparkling wine. The goal of the symposium program is to increase the sparkling wine and food knowledge of "America's best and up-and-coming chefs."

The Polo Grill regularly hosts events that encourage and support wine appreciation and education, such as monthly wine seminars, tasting and dinners hosted by guest sommeliers from across the nation. Sommelier James Andrews, from The American Restaurant in Kansas City will conduct two wine events at Polo Grill in September.

For more information about Polo Grill's wine program, please call Polo Grill at (918) 744-4280.