Modena Ristorante Vinoteca

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.