Cheers: Boston's best wine cellars

L'Espalier, known to most as a wine and cheese paradise, wraps wine walls around the restaurant displaying over 500 bottles of wine to choose from including the 1998 Le Montrachet, Grand Cru for $5,000. The restaurant also has its own private labels, the 1996 Westport Rivers, “Cuvée L’Espalier”, Brut from Westport, Massachusetts and 2002 Alex Gambal, “Cuvée L’Espalier”, Fixin Blanc, from Burgundy, France.

Head west toward the Berkshires and happen upon Blantyre Resort, where you'll find a wine cellar centuries old housing wines from vineyards around the world. Blantyre's wine list reads more like a history book, but that's part of the fun of choosing the wine. On occasion, Blantyre hosts wine dinners with the vintners themselves, allowing wine-lovers to taste different years and learn directly from the people who produce the wine, all while dining in Blantyre's majestic dining room.

I'd also add a few other places in Boston where wine lovers might find nirvana (though there might not be cellars to explore, the lists are worth diving into):

No. 9 Park: The pièce de résistance of Beacon Hill has one of the finest wine lists in the city, and also has their own label, produced by a California distributor.
Prezza: The North End restaurant does better by the bottle than by the glass, but there are some rare and unique wines on this list that will tempt your palate.
Bin 26 Enoteca: This Beacon Hill wine bar has over 50 wines by glass and nearly 200 wines by the bottle.
Troquet: The closest thing to Paris you'll find in Boston, this French bistro and wine bar has a wine list to rival most small restaurants in the city.
The Butcher Shop: Barbara Lynch's Boston staple in the South End knows nothing goes better with a charcuterie plate than a good wine. The list has a lot of bottles from small family farms, so let the staff pick for you based on your preferences, and discover something new.