Italian classics in a Victorian mansion done right
Sherman Hill · Des Moines · Italian · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · April 12, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Aposto at the Scala House’s wine list and gave it The Reliable — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Walking into a restored 1880 Victorian mansion in Sherman Hill, you half-expect a dusty wine list to match the wallpaper. Instead, Aposto hands you something with actual ambition — Italian-forward, regionally coherent, and priced like they actually want you to order a bottle. It's a pleasant surprise for Des Moines.
The list leans hard into the Italian canon, and that's not a criticism — when you're doing Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino, Amarone della Valpolicella, and Super Tuscans under one roof, you're covering the heavyweights. The bottle range of $45–$200 is broad enough to accommodate a Tuesday-night splurge and a special-occasion flex without feeling like a trap. American wines make an appearance too, giving the list a bit of breathing room beyond the boot. The gap here is depth in lighter Italian styles — Vermentino, Etna Bianco, Soave — the kinds of bottles that could anchor the seafood and pasta dishes without competing with them.
Glass pours run $12–$20, which is honest pricing for this caliber of restaurant. The specific by-the-glass selection isn't published openly, which is a missed opportunity — a curated Italian list like this should be showing off its pours, not hiding them. If the BTG program reflects the bottle list, there's real potential here; we just want the menu to prove it.
Barolo — $45–$70 (bottle entry)
Barolo at the lower end of this list's bottle range is where the value lives. You're getting one of Italy's most serious reds in a setting that complements it, without the downtown steakhouse markup you'd pay elsewhere.
Amarone della Valpolicella
Most tables at Aposto go straight for the Brunello and sleep on the Amarone. Big, brooding, and built from dried Corvina grapes — it's a different kind of Italian power and it deserves more attention than it gets on most American wine lists.
Super Tuscans (top tier)
Super Tuscans at the upper end of the pricing here can creep into markup territory that doesn't justify the glass. The category's cachet often inflates the price tag more than the wine itself — you can drink better for less by leaning into the Barolo or Brunello instead.
Barolo + Anatra: seared duck breast with orange & herb butter sauce
Barolo's firm tannins and dried cherry character cut through the richness of duck breast without fighting the citrus brightness of that orange butter sauce. It's a classic match that the kitchen and the wine list seem almost designed to pull off together.
The Bottom Line
Aposto isn't trying to be a wine destination, but it's doing more than most Italian restaurants in the Midwest — and doing it fairly priced, in a genuinely beautiful space. Send a friend here who wants to drink Barolo with duck and feel like they made the right call.
Downtown Des Moines · Des Moines · American, Regional
Proudfoot & Bird is the kind of place where the room earns a star the wine list can't quite match — solid enough for a business dinner or a date night in a stunning space, but don't come expecting to find something you've never heard of. If you're in Des Moines and want a dependable glass in a beautiful room, it works.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Johnston · Des Moines · Wine bar / American
Louie's Johnston is exactly what a suburban wine bar should be — a big by-the-glass list, fair prices, and zero pretension. Send your friends here when they want to drink well without a side of attitude.
Crowd Pleasers
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Seasonal Rotation
Acceptable
Clive · Des Moines · Steakhouse & American
Club Car is a reliable steakhouse wine list doing exactly what it was built to do: keep Cab drinkers happy and nobody walking out complaining. Don't come here for discovery, but don't leave without ordering the Jordan.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Waukee · Des Moines · Japanese / Asian Fusion / Sushi
Wasabi Waukee is a genuinely good sushi restaurant that treats its wine list like an afterthought — familiar names, steep markups, and zero curiosity about what wines might actually sing alongside the food. Order the cocktails or sake instead, and save the wine discussion for somewhere that cares.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Occasional
Acceptable
Ingersoll / Grand · Des Moines · Contemporary American
Louie's Wine Dive is the kind of place Des Moines needs more of — a real wine program in a no-pretense room, with Tuesday half-price deals that make experimenting genuinely low-stakes. It's not a destination list, but it's absolutely a destination night.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Active Program
Acceptable
Clive · Des Moines · American, Brewpub
Granite City is a brewery that tolerates wine, and the list reflects that perfectly. Drink the beer — it's the whole point of being here.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Healdsburg · Italian
Ciao Bruto is running one of the smallest and most coherent wine lists in wine country, which is either audacious or brilliant — probably both. If you want a 200-label deep-dive, go somewhere else. If you want eight smart picks at prices that won't make you wince, this is the move in Healdsburg.
Small but Thoughtful
Steal
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Geyserville · Healdsburg · Italian
Diavola earns its Wild Card badge because it's a wood-fired pizza joint that punches well above its weight on wine — sommelier on staff, regional focus, and a setting that practically demands you order a second glass. We can't give you the bottle-by-bottle breakdown until we get eyes on a current list, but the bones here are good enough to say: don't just order a beer and move on.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
· Healdsburg · Italian
Ca'Bianca is a genuinely lovely place to eat, and if the food lives up to its reputation for house-made pasta and classic Italian technique, a bottle of something from the list is absolutely worth ordering. We just can't tell you exactly which bottle to order yet — the wine program's specifics aren't publicly documented well enough for us to make a confident call. When in doubt, ask your server what's local and what they're excited about, and go from there.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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