Utah's Most Italian Wine List You've Never Heard Of
Downtown · Salt Lake City · Italian (regional Molise-inspired, contemporary) · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed June 13, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed Caffé Molise’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Walking into Caffé Molise, you don't expect to find Di Majo Norante on the wine list — but here we are, in downtown Salt Lake City, at a restaurant that actually knows what Molise is. The list is not long, but it earns its keep by going places most Utah Italian restaurants wouldn't bother.
The list leans hard into central and southern Italy, which tracks given the restaurant's regional identity. You've got Cetamura Chianti for the Tuscany crowd, Barco Reale di Carmignano for the people who know better than to just order Chianti, and Passamante Salice Salentino pulling duty for the south. The real signal that someone here cares: Di Majo Norante Sangiovese, a producer from actual Molise — a region so obscure even most Italian wine geeks have to pause. That's not an accident. The gaps are real though: no depth on Piedmont, no white wine producers worth calling out by name, and the list stops well short of what a true Italian specialist would carry.
By-the-glass specifics weren't available when we visited, so we can't tell you exactly what's pouring or at what price. What we can say is that the bottle list gives enough range that the glass program should have something worth ordering — push your server toward the Italian reds and you're likely in good shape.
Di Majo Norante Sangiovese 2021 — null
This is a producer doing serious work in one of Italy's most overlooked regions. You're not paying a prestige premium because almost nobody knows the name, but the wine punches above its weight. Order it before the restaurant figures out they can charge more.
Barco Reale di Carmignano 2019
Carmignano is Tuscany's best-kept secret — a tiny appellation that blends Sangiovese with a touch of Cabernet, producing something more complex and structured than most Chiantis at twice the price. Most tables here will order the Chianti and never know this exists.
Cetamura Chianti 2022
Perfectly decent entry-level Chianti, but when Barco Reale di Carmignano and Di Majo Norante Sangiovese are on the same list, there's no reason to default to the safe pick. This is the wine you order when you haven't looked at the list carefully.
Passamante Salice Salentino 2022 + Grilled meats
Salice Salentino is Negroamaro country — dark, earthy, with enough grip to stand up to char and fat. The restaurant's grilled meats need something with backbone, and this delivers without overwhelming. It's a southern Italian wine doing exactly what it was born to do.
The Bottom Line
Caffé Molise is doing something genuinely uncommon in Salt Lake City: building a wine list with an actual point of view. It's not a deep list, but it's an honest one, and the Molise-region nod with Di Majo Norante alone makes it worth a look.
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A long list organized by style and region, with two-number prices running from 8 | 40 to 19 | 97 and a $17 flight of any three by-the-glass wines on Sunday through Thursday. Start with the 8 | 40 Aichenberg Grüner Veltliner or the 11 | 53 Giraudon Aligoté, and ask which number is the glass price before you order. This unrated guide covers the posted wine list, not service, storage or markups.
Downtown · Salt Lake City · Italian
A bin-numbered list with Italian reds up front and a 20-pour glass page behind it, judged only on what is posted. Start with the $15 Cascina Vèngore Arneis by the glass, or the $58 Simčič Pinot Grigio if you want a bottle, and confirm prices because the wine menu is linked as 9-16-26. This unrated guide covers the posted wine menu, not service, storage or markups.
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