Colette Restaurant
Cincinnati's Most Serious French Wine Program
OTR · Cincinnati · French · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed March 28, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
The wine list at Colette hits you like walking into a well-stocked cave in the Loire — specific, opinionated, and clearly built by someone who actually cares. This isn't a list assembled by a corporate consultant hitting a checklist; it's a 75-120 bottle argument for why France still runs the table. OTR doesn't exactly have a reputation as a wine destination, but Colette is quietly changing that.
Selection Deep Dive
The French focus here is surgical — Loire Valley, Burgundy, Alsace, Rhône, Provence, Languedoc, Corsica, and even Lorraine and Sud Ouest all show up with purpose. Producers like Thierry Germain, Alain Graillot, and Pierre Morey aren't names you throw on a list to fill space; these are growers with serious reputations and limited allocations. The natural wine thread running through the list — pét-nats, skin-contact, low-intervention — sits alongside more classical picks without ever feeling like a gimmick. The only gap worth noting is a near-total absence of non-French bottles, which will delight the Francophile and mildly frustrate anyone looking for an Italian or Spanish anchor.
By the Glass
The by-the-glass program runs 12-20 options and reflects the same terroir-obsessed curation as the bottle list — you're not just getting a house white here, you're choosing between a Muscadet from Jérémie Huchet and a Chablis from Château de Béru. That's genuinely rare for Cincinnati, or frankly most mid-sized American cities. Rotation appears intentional rather than reactive, which suggests the team is actively managing the glass program rather than just dumping slow-moving bottles into it.
Sauvignon Blanc Dom. Vincent Ricard Touraine 'Pierre á Feu' Loire '23 — Unknown
Touraine Sauvignon Blanc is one of the steals of the Loire — all the bright, stony character of Sancerre at a fraction of the cost. Ricard is a solid producer and this vintage is drinking well right now. If Colette is pricing it fairly (and all signs suggest they are), this is the move for the table that wants a crisp white without the Sancerre markup.
Vermentinu Clos Venturi '1769' Corsica '23
Most people see Corsica on a wine list and skip past it entirely — their loss. Clos Venturi is one of the island's benchmark producers, and Vermentinu in their hands has a saline, herbal tension that's unlike almost anything else on the list. It's the kind of bottle that makes you feel like you discovered something.
Chardonnay Dom. Pierre Morey CĂ´te d'Or Burgundy '22
Pierre Morey is a respected name in Burgundy and this is a genuinely good wine — but Côte d'Or Chardonnay at a fine dining restaurant is where markups tend to stack up fast. At a $$$ price point restaurant, you're almost certainly paying a significant premium over retail for the Burgundy pedigree. The Rijckaert Bourgogne Blanc Vieilles Vignes or the Château de Béru Chablis will get you into comparable Burgundy terroir territory with less sticker shock.
Marsanne+ Alain Graillot Croze-Hermitage RhĂ´ne '23 + French-leaning fish or seafood preparation
Graillot's Croze-Hermitage white is rich and structured with that waxy, stone-fruit character Marsanne does in the northern Rhône — it can stand up to cream sauces, roasted fish, or anything with a little weight to it. At a French restaurant of this caliber, there's almost certainly something on the menu that wants exactly this wine.
🔥 The Bottom Line
Colette is the best wine list in Cincinnati and it's not close — a focused, intelligent French program with real producers, a sommelier who clearly wrote the list rather than inherited it, and pricing that doesn't punish you for drinking well. Send your wine-curious friends here without hesitation.
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