Jayson Knack could have immediately ushered in a tsunami of customers to Decanter had he chosen a metro San Diego location for his new indoor-outdoor wine lounge and restaurant. But he knew deep in his sommelier heart that you can’t replicate the atmospheric experience of Napa Valley in pretentious La Jolla, congested Hillcrest or the greenless Gaslamp Quarter.

So he instead turned to a country-like fringe of Rancho Santa Fe, within the stone-and-mortar Cielo Hillside Marketplace, which prior to Decanter’s arrival in January, lacked any tenants who keep their lights on past 8 p.m.

“I wanted to be the first person on the block,” says Knack, pointing to the quiet hills surrounding Decanter. Across the street is Crosby Golf Course, and in the distance are pricey homes dotting the bucolic landscape – all within lovely eyeshot of Decanter’s sprawling, 3,500-square-foot patio.

If the lush scenery doesn’t allude to rural wine country, the nightly appearance of a local barn owl will. The foraging bird, named Hercules by the staff, perches regularly on Decanter’s chimney shortly after sunset, projecting its clacking sonar and stately poise to the patio below.

“It was the owl that shriek’d the fatal bellman, which gives the stern’st good-night,” Shakespeare wrote. We might instead say, “Whilst the owl shrieks from the night sky, we doth utter sweet breath.”

Knack, formerly the manager of Wine Lover in Hillcrest, combines an exceptional wine program with personable fare presented by Chef Geoffrey Yahn, whose dishes are best summed up as “American classics with modern interpretations.” The menu is refreshingly succinct, and the food hits great heights at times – particularly when the chef’s use of exotic salts is kept at bay.

Most of the produce hails from nearby Chino Farms. In addition, Yahn purchases ingredients in small amounts, meaning they don’t lose their verve before entering your mouth. Behold the deep-red blood oranges and spicy wild greens used in a salad dressed in truffle vinaigrette (albeit salty) or the snappy parsnips puréed into soup and garnished with miniature flower petals. Or the tangy Pink Lady apples and zesty fresh fennel tossed with blue crab, which our astute waitress matched with Torrontes Crios de Susana Balbo from Argentina, an excellent Viognier-like white wine offering whiffs of white pear.

Wine sampling is a major thrill at Decanter, given that the list features nearly 200 labels sold by the taste or glass. Though if a particular bottle winks at you from the temperature-controlled glass vault (a focal point to the sleek interior design), the staff will cork it and sell you a pour without charging for the whole shebang.

“We’re probably the only place in San Diego where you can enjoy Camus by the glass,” says Knack. The bottom-line risk, he adds, is sometimes offset by customers who love what they’ve been poured from an exclusive bottle, and then end up drinking it until it’s gone.

For another starter – hand-cut steak tartare – we switched to Poppy pinot noir from the glass list. Its gentle fruit notes both quelled and deepened the one-dimensional tang of Polmery mustard binding the minced raw beef – a classic case of wine and food ending up as inseparable bedfellows.

Other pastoral-tailored appetizers include sieved eggs with American caviar, pickled onions and brioche; Carlsbad mussels in white wine and green garlic; and an expected complement of charcuterie, artisan cheeses and pickled vegetables.

Six entrées comprise the menu’s “indulge” section, beginning with “rosemary-scented” Jidori chicken served with none other than garden-fresh root veggies and wild arugula. We also chose Berkshire pork loin, cooked medium-rare with neighboring pieces of buttery Julian apples, spring onions and heirloom potatoes. Deferring again to our waitress for a wine choice, she poured for us a cult red named Layer Cake; its jammy body honored the homey essence of the entrées and wowed our palates after indulging on the lighter varietals.

“A jus master,” is how I termed the chef after tasting the meat from both dishes. For the chicken, Yahn mingles pan juices with butter. The same application is used for the pork, but with an added flash of brandy. My companion, however, found the pork jus too starchy. If the chef indeed went over the line with thickener, the pork lover I am blinded me from noticing.

A trio of table salts on the table (kosher, pink Himalayan and fleur de sol) is a polite amenity that you don’t see in other restaurants. But we never pinched into them because everything we ate contained either satisfying or undue doses of sodium. A sampling of truffled mac and cheese made with Gruyère suffered from the latter.

The chef’s homemade desserts proved a fine ending to our wine-drenched supper. Donuts adorned with orange cream and caramel sauce were dense and delicious – a swell match to a pot of sobering French-pressed coffee. Or for a plunge into sweet Americana, the hot fudge sundae with peanut praline doesn’t disappoint.

Though far removed from the beaten track, the scenic drive to Decanter takes a mere 25 minutes from Mission Valley, barring freeway traffic. And once there, after a few swills and bites, the location makes perfect sense.