Bay Area Restaurants choose the best for their lists...
Michael Bauer, Chronicle Restaurant Critic June 17, 2002

Few restaurants have as extensive a wine program as Prima in Walnut Creek. With the advantage of also being a wine merchant, diners are treated to great pricing (most wines are a little more than doubled in mark up), and an inventory of more than 1,600 wines.

The list has great depth-there are more than 160 red wines from Piedmont alone-and what seems like just about every Gaja wine ever made. In addition, you'll discover wines from up-and-coming regions, including five wines from Maremma in Tuscany.

The wines are stored at perfect cellar temperature, and the list is updated weekly. Prima also conducts educational seminars, tastings and produces a monthly newsletter.