Natural Italian Soul in a Pizza Palace
Southeast Portland · Portland · Italian · Visit Website ↗
Updated August 2026
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · April 10, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Nostrana’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Walking into Nostrana's vaulted, lantern-hung room, you half expect the wine list to be an afterthought propped against a wood-fired pizza menu. It isn't. The list skews Italian and earnest, with enough natural wine credibility to signal that someone here actually cares.
The Italian backbone is the real story — Friuli and Emilia-Romagna natural producers sit alongside Sicilian bottles and Central Italian reds like Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, giving the list a regional specificity that most Italian-American spots in this city completely ignore. Tuscany shows up too, which keeps the conventionally-minded diner comfortable. The Willamette Valley Pinot Noir inclusion is a smart local nod that doesn't feel forced — this is Portland, after all, and it earns its spot. The Rhône Valley presence rounds things out, though it's clearly a supporting player rather than a focus.
With 10 to 16 options by the glass, you have enough to work through a whole meal without committing to a bottle — rare and worth noting. The glass program leans into the same Italian natural wine identity as the bottle list, which means you're not just pouring house Chianti on autopilot. Rotation appears limited, so don't expect the pours to shift dramatically season to season.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo — $38
Central Italian Montepulciano at this price point is a consistent overachiever — rustic, food-friendly, and built for exactly the kind of wood-fired, hearty cooking Nostrana puts on the table. It's the move.
Friuli Natural White
Most tables at Nostrana are ordering Pinot Noir or Chianti, which means the Friuli natural whites are largely flying under the radar. These are textural, slightly funky, and genuinely interesting — perfect against a plate of seasonal pasta.
Willamette Valley Pinot Noir
The local Pinot is a perfectly fine pour, but you're at an Italian restaurant with actual Italian natural wine on the list. Ordering a Willamette Pinot here feels like going to a ramen shop and ordering the burger.
Sicilian Red + Wood-fired thin-crust pizza
Sicilian reds — typically Nero d'Avola or Nerello Mascalese — carry enough acid and earthy grip to cut through char and fat without steamrolling the toppings. It's the most natural pairing on the menu and nobody's fighting you for it.
The Bottom Line
Nostrana isn't a wine destination in the way a dedicated wine bar is, but it's doing something genuinely interesting with its Italian natural wine focus inside a room that could easily get away with doing nothing. Send a curious friend here — just point them toward the Italian side of the list.
Kerns · Portland · American
Noble Rot is the rare restaurant wine program that would hold up as a standalone wine bar — deep list, sharp staff, fair prices, and a view that makes the whole experience feel earned. Send your friends here. Send yourself here.
Deep & Eclectic
Fair
Varietal Specific
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Seasonal Rotation
Proper
Northeast Portland · Portland · New American
OK Omens is doing something genuinely uncommon: running a focused, adventurous wine program in a neighborhood restaurant without making it feel precious or intimidating. If you're the kind of person who wants to drink something you've never heard of and trust that the staff knows why it's there, send yourself here immediately.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
Northwest 23rd · Portland · Rustic French / Northwest French
St. Jack is the rare Portland restaurant where the wine list earns as much respect as the kitchen. The French-Oregon axis is well-executed, the staff knows what they're talking about, and the pot lyonnais format alone is worth the trip.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Knowledgeable & Friendly
Set & Forget
Proper
Downtown · Portland · Mexico City–inspired tacos and small plates
Tope is a Wild Card in the best sense — a rooftop taqueria that's quietly assembled a natural and low-intervention wine list worth paying attention to. If you're eating here and only drinking mezcal cocktails, you're leaving half the story on the table.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown · Portland · Texan–Pacific Northwest, Wood-fired American
Bullard Tavern is the Wild Card badge in its purest form — a smoked-meat joint that snuck in a genuinely considered wine list without making a fuss about it. Send a friend here if they think good wine and good brisket can't coexist.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown/Waterfront · Portland · Seafood, Pacific Northwest
King Tide earns its Wild Card badge by hiding a genuinely curious, well-priced wine list inside what could easily have been a forgettable hotel seafood room. If you're eating oysters on the Willamette, you could do a lot worse than Domaine de l'Écu in your glass.
Small but Thoughtful
Steal
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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