Wine Spectator Magazine Toasts Morton’s Wine & Spirits Program with Award of Excellence Recognition

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Wine Spectator Magazine Toasts Morton’s Wine & Spirits Program with Award of Excellence Recognition for Fourth Consecutive Year
Morton’s The Steakhouse Receives Top Honors from Wine Spectator Magazine for all 77 Worldwide Locations

NEW ORLEANS, La. - (Aug. 5, 2011) - Wine Spectator Magazine recently announced Morton’s The Steakhouse has once again received the prestigious “Award of Excellence” at all 77 wordwide locations including New Orleans, marking the fourth consecutive year the restaurant has been recognized with this accolade in the magazine’s Restaurant Awards issue.

The Restaurant Awards issue of Wine Spectator recognizes restaurants whose wine lists offer interesting selections that are well suited to their cuisine and appeal to a diverse group of wine enthusiasts. The designation of an “Award of Excellence” is achieved by restaurants whose wine lists offer a carefully chosen selection of the finest quality wines that is a thematic match to the menu in both price and style. Additionally, the menu of restaurants that receive an “Award of Excellence” must offer at least 100 different wine selections.

“We are pleased to be among the prestigious restaurants honored by Wine Spectator for the fourth consecutive year,” said Tylor Field III, Morton’s Vice President of Wine & Spirits. “Morton’s is constantly striving to raise the bar with its Wine & Spirits program and is extremely proud of the newly appointed Sommelier Team, headed by Certified Sommelier Sara Fasolino and comprised of 12 handpicked passionate and highly knowledgeable sommeliers from within the company who are committed to the field.”

Additionally, Morton’s unveiled this year a new “Sommelier Selections” section of the wine lists that provides boutique and “Rare Gems” including Ladera Cabernet Sauvignon (Howell Mountain 2005) and Fremark Abbey Cabernet (Napa 2002) available only at Morton’s domestic locations.

About Morton's Wine & Spirits Program
Morton's Wine & Spirits program consists of ongoing events and initiatives designed to provide guests with incredible wine experiences at each of Morton's worldwide locations. The program is lead by “Morton’s Sommelier Team,” a group of 12 handpicked wine and spirits experts who have passed the first level test of the Guild of Master Sommeliers and work together to create Morton’s wine and spirits programming under the guidance of Tylor Field. Ongoing 2011 initiatives include Morton’s Bar 12·21 with its value-priced menu of Bar Bites and Power Hour in select locations, Celebrity Server events with top PGA TOUR golfers as part of Morton’s new PGA TOUR partnership and Prime Events at Morton's -- a series of special events and cooking demonstrations that includes Scotch tastings, wine blending receptions and Morton’s Master Classes.

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