Wine Spectator hardware, a sommelier forged at The Modern, and Italy from Friuli to Sicily
Roswell · Atlanta · Italian · Visit Website ↗
Updated June 2026
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · February 22, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Osteria Mattone’s wine list and gave it The Rager — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
Osteria Mattone holds a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence every year since opening in 2013 and backs it up with roughly 180 selections and 1,500 bottles on site. Wine director Daniel Pernice trained at Danny Meyer's The Modern in New York during its James Beard Outstanding Wine Program run. He came home to Roswell and built the Italian wine list this city did not know it needed. If you care about Italian wine, this is a destination.
The list covers Italy from Friuli to Sicily with the kind of depth that makes you forget you are OTP. Piedmont is properly represented with GD Vajra Albe Barolo anchoring the premium tier. Friuli shows up via Ronchi di Cialla Ribolla Gialla — a varietal most Roswell diners have never encountered. Tuscany delivers Chianti Classico Riserva and Antinori blends. Puglia, Abruzzo, Sardinia, and Campania all get their moments. Pernice champions lesser-known Italian regions with real conviction, and a Sommelier's Thoughts sidebar on the menu helps guests navigate unfamiliar territory. Smart Champagne and New World picks round out the edges without diluting the Italian core.
Twenty-two wines by the glass priced from $13 to $25 span sparkling, white, rosé, and red with genuine range. The $25 GD Vajra Barolo by the glass is the crown jewel — you rarely see Barolo poured by the glass outside of major cities. Whites run from a $13 Centopassi Giato Bianco to a $17 Hess Panthera Chardonnay. The Aperitivo Happy Hour drops select glasses to $9 during the first two hours at the bar daily, making this one of the best wine happy hours in metro Atlanta.
Li Veli Orion Primitivo — $14/glass
Puglia's answer to old-vine Zinfandel at a price that makes zero sense for the quality. Rich, ripe, and loaded with dark cherry. Order this with any red-sauce pasta and feel like you just outsmarted the menu.
Ronchi di Cialla Ribolla Gialla
A $16 glass of Friulian white that most Americans cannot pronounce and fewer have tasted. Floral, textured, and built for the restaurant's seafood antipasti. This is Pernice showing you what Italian white wine can be beyond Pinot Grigio.
Hess Panthera Chardonnay
A fine California Chardonnay but you did not come to Osteria Mattone to drink Russian River Valley. At $17 a glass you are in range of the Bramito della Sala from Umbria or the Sardinian Vermentino, both of which tell a better story at this table.
Tinazzi Valpolicella Ripasso + Tagliolini Bolognese
Pernice calls Ripasso the bridge wine for American drinkers exploring Italian reds and he is right. The dried-grape richness and gentle tannin of the Ripasso meet the slow-simmered Bolognese with the kind of harmony that makes you stop talking and just eat. This is the pairing that converts people.
Daily — Aperitivo Happy Hour at the bar — first two hours feature select glasses
The Bottom Line
Osteria Mattone is not just the best Italian wine program in Roswell — it is one of the best suburban Italian wine programs in the Southeast. The Wine Spectator hardware is earned, the sommelier has a pedigree that would play in Manhattan, and the by-the-glass program lets you explore Italy one pour at a time without breaking the bank. Roswell's wine identity starts here.
· Atlanta · New American / Tasting Menu
Choose your courses, then choose your glasses. Bacchanalia's posted pairings give you concrete options: Carl Loewen Riesling at $24 with crab, or Ca' La Bionda Ripasso at $27 with duck. Ask which suggestions match tonight's menu before committing to the wine bill.
Midtown · Atlanta · Southern European
Start with the $14 Vostinic-Klasnic Ikons if you want to explore beyond familiar grapes, or the $16 chilled La Galoche Gamay if that's your lane. Lyla Lila's posted glass list makes trying something different a one-glass decision, not a whole-bottle commitment.
· Atlanta · New American
Siren has a wine list that punches above its weight in a few key areas — particularly the by-the-glass whites and the Champagne bottle program — but the markup structure means you're spending real money to access it. If you're the kind of diner who wants to order Furmint on a Tuesday night in Atlanta, this is one of the few places that makes that possible, and that alone earns it a spot on the shortlist.
Solid Range
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Atlanta · Regional Italian
Make Monday your bottle night at Indaco: half off bottles priced up to $100, then $50 off above that. Ask for the current bottle list before choosing; the discount has a ceiling, even if your wine budget doesn't.
Atlanta · Atlanta · Vietnamese
NAM Kitchen is doing something genuinely unexpected: running a thoughtful, fairly priced 68-label wine list inside a Vietnamese restaurant, anchored by a strong sparkling section and some legitimately food-smart white wine choices. If you're the kind of person who wants a real glass of wine with your bún bò Huế, this is worth knowing about.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Atlanta · Steakhouse
Il Premio is a steakhouse that took its wine list seriously enough to skip the obvious plays, and the result is one of the more interesting Italian-focused lists in Atlanta right now. It's compact, priced fairly across the board, and built for exploration — whether you're going glass by glass through the Italian regions or just need a solid bottle of Chianti Classico at $72 to make a steak dinner feel right. We'd send a friend here specifically for the wine.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
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
One wine list review, one adventure pick, one quick tip, and a personal note. Every week. Under 500 words.
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