Mulino Italian Kitchen & Bar

You walk into a converted 1901 textile mill in downtown Raleigh and the wine list is... actually good? That's the pleasant surprise here. Mulino leans hard into Italy — not the tourist-trap Chianti and Pinot Grigio version of Italy, but the real stuff.

The list is anchored in Italian regions with some genuine depth: a 2019 Marcenasco Barolo from Renato Ratti, Siro Pacenti's Brunello di Montalcino Vecchie Vigne, and Accordini's Corte Alta Amarone 2019 are serious bottles that don't often show up in a neighborhood Italian restaurant. Sicily gets proper representation through Gorghi Tondi across multiple varieties — Grillo, Nero d'Avola, and a Nerello Mascalese rosé — which tells you someone actually thought about this list. There's a wild card appearance from R. Lopez de Heredia's Viña Bosconia Reserva 2012, a Rioja that has no business being this interesting on a Raleigh pizza menu. California gets a seat at the table but it's clearly the afterthought, which is exactly right.

Fifteen-plus pours by the glass and the pricing is refreshingly honest — most fall between $12 and $14, which in 2024 feels almost radical. The glass program leans on Gorghi Tondi's Sicilian lineup and a handful of regional Italian grapes like Falanghina and Vermentino that you don't see everywhere, so there's actual exploration available without opening a bottle.