Suburban Italian That Actually Takes Wine Seriously
Marietta · Marietta · Italian · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed May 20, 2026
Wingman Metrics
You're in a strip mall off Ernest Barrett Parkway in Marietta, and then you walk in and someone hands you a wine list that just earned a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. It doesn't feel like it should work, but it does. The room has wine-bar energy — lively, relaxed, and clearly built by people who take the bottle as seriously as the plate.
The Italy focus is real and earns its credential — you've got Pieropan Soave Classico anchoring the whites, Prunotto Barbaresco and Zenato Amarone representing the north, and Antinori Tignanello flying the Tuscan flag at the top of the list. There are California cameos (Silver Oak, Cakebread, Orin Swift) for the table that always orders what they know, but this list clearly has an Italian spine and builds around it. The Sicilian Planeta La Segreta Bianco showing up at $44 tells you someone is thinking about accessibility alongside the prestige pours. We'd love to see more southern Italian depth — Campania, Puglia — but what's here is cohesive and intentional.
Specific by-the-glass counts weren't available during our visit, but with sommelier Jill Pipes running the program and a Wednesday half-price wine night baked into the weekly schedule, this is clearly not a list that was set and forgotten. We'd expect a rotating glass selection that reflects the Italian-leaning bottle list — ask the staff what's pouring that night.
Planeta La Segreta Bianco — $44
Sicilian white that punches way above its price tag — bright, food-friendly, and the kind of bottle that disappears fast at a table. At $44, it's one of the most accessible entry points on the list and honestly one of the most fun.
Pieropan Soave Classico
Everyone walks past Soave like it's still 1987 and we're all still drinking the bad version. Pieropan is the benchmark producer — structured, mineral, genuinely interesting — and at $48 it's the most underordered bottle on this list.
Silver Oak Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2018
At $240, you're paying restaurant markup on a wine that everyone already knows and that retails in the $70-80 range. Nothing wrong with Silver Oak, but you're at an Italian restaurant with a Wine Spectator-recognized list — there are better stories to tell here.
Zenato Amarone della Valpolicella Classico + Osso Buco
Amarone is built for braised meat — it's rich, concentrated, and has the structure to stand up to veal shank without steamrolling it. Zenato is a classic Valpolicella producer and this is exactly the kind of old-world match that makes you glad you didn't order the Cab.
Wednesday — Half-price wine night every Wednesday — the single best reason to plan a midweek dinner in Marietta.
🎲 The Bottom Line
Modena is the neighborhood Italian that actually earned the wine credentials to back up its ambitions — Jill Pipes is running a thoughtful program in a place that could have easily phoned it in. Show up on a Wednesday, order the Pieropan, and let someone else have the Silver Oak.
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.