Champagne dreams inside a Japanese dining room
· Decatur · Japanese · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · October 4, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Umi’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
You open the wine list at Umi expecting the usual sushi-restaurant suspects — maybe a token Champagne and some California Chardonnay — and instead you find a sparkling program that goes from Bisol Prosecco all the way to Salon Cuvée S at $1,250 a bottle. It's a flex, and it's deliberate. This list was built by someone who takes bubbles seriously.
The list clocks in at around 60 labels, and the overwhelming focus is sparkling wine — particularly Champagne. The bottle lineup reads like a greatest-hits of the category: Taittinger, Veuve Clicquot, Billecart-Salmon Brut Rosé at $195, Dom Pérignon 2013 at $525, Cristal 2015 at $555, and the crown jewel, Salon Cuvée S Blanc de Blancs 2013 at $1,250. The white and rosé by-the-bottle program exists but feels secondary — a Domaine William Fèvre Chablis 2021, a ZD Chardonnay, a Hugel Pinot Gris — solid choices that clearly weren't the priority. If you came for red wine or anything adventurous outside of bubbles, you're going to be disappointed; this list has a lane and it stays in it.
Twenty glass pours is a generous count, and the sparkling options lead the charge — the Bisol Jeio Prosecco at $15/glass and the Taittinger Brut Reserve at $28/glass cover the entry and mid-range well. The white pours include the Frenzy Sauvignon Blanc at $13/glass and the Fèvre Chablis at $20/glass, which are fine options, but the list doesn't rotate or surprise — it's the same anchors you'd find on most visits.
The Bottom Line
Umi is built around Champagne, and if that's your thing, there are genuinely exciting bottles here — from the Billecart-Salmon Rosé to the Salon Cuvée S for when someone at the table is feeling reckless. The markups run steep across the board, and outside of sparkling, the list doesn't have much to say. But if you're celebrating something and want bubbles with your omakase, this is exactly the right room.
Buckhead · Decatur · Hotel dining
Astor Court is a genuinely lovely room for a special-occasion brunch or afternoon tea, and the food menu — Kusshi oysters, truffle-laced celery root soup, that Challah French toast — gives you plenty to work with. But without a transparent wine list, verifiable pricing, or a confirmed wine specialist on the floor, we can't in good conscience send you here specifically for the wine. Order something sparkling, enjoy the room, and let the food do the heavy lifting.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Decatur · Decatur · Italian
Sotto Sotto is a genuinely Italian wine list in a city that usually settles for Italian-American approximations — the Timorasso, the Lambrusco di Sorbara, the Franciacorta all signal real intent. The glass program is accessible, markups are reasonable, and the bubbles section alone justifies a visit. If you want depth across all of Italy, you'll hit the edges fast at 68 labels, but what's here is well-chosen. Send a friend who likes to drink something they've never heard of.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Decatur · Decatur · Seafood and New American
Wahoo! Grill isn't going to make a wine obsessive rearrange their calendar — but if you're in Decatur on a Wednesday, the half-price bottle deal on wines under $45 makes this one of the better casual wine nights in the neighborhood. Show up for the Sesame-crusted Ahi Tuna, let someone at the table pick a bottle, and don't overthink it.
Solid Range
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Seasonal Rotation
Acceptable
Decatur · Decatur · French and Alsatian
Café Alsace earns the Wild Card badge because it's doing something genuinely unusual in metro Atlanta — serving Alsatian food with a wine list to match, in a neighborhood bistro that doesn't take itself too seriously. We'd love to report more specifics on bottles and pricing, but the concept is sound and the food-wine alignment is real. If you're sitting down to a plate of choucroute garnie, you're probably drinking the right thing — and that's more than most restaurants in this city can say.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Decatur · Decatur · Italian
BoccaLupo is the kind of Italian wine list that makes you realize how lazy most Italian restaurant wine lists are. Fair pricing, genuine range, and a by-the-glass program that rewards exploration over habit — this is a list worth your attention. If you're the kind of person who orders Verdicchio or Furmint on a Tuesday night in Decatur, this place already knows you're coming.
Surprising Depth
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Decatur · New American
Miller Union is doing something unusual: a wine program with no fat on it, just four deliberate producers matched to a meal's arc. We don't have pricing data to grade the value, and the fixed structure won't satisfy anyone looking to explore freely — but the bones of this list are genuinely good. If you trust the kitchen, trust the wine program too.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· San Jose · Japanese
Ozumo pulls off something most restaurants don't bother attempting: a tight, curated by-the-glass program that actually reflects a point of view. The Loire and Burgundy presence alongside skin-contact Pinot Gris and volcanic Soave tells you someone made real choices here. If you're eating Japanese and want to drink something more interesting than the house Pinot Noir, this list delivers — especially in that $13–$19 range.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Vail · Japanese
Matsuhisa Vail carries recognizable Burgundy producers, which suggests someone cares about the wine program at some level — but the public-facing documentation is so thin we can't make a credible case for the list as a whole. Until there's transparency on pricing, glass pours, and the full bottle selection, Vail's wine-forward crowd would be taking a blind leap ordering here. Go for the food; treat the wine as a bonus if something good shows up.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Downtown · Ashland · Japanese
Little Tokyo is a solid casual Japanese spot that simply doesn't do wine — and that's fine, because their sake is where the real action is. Come for the sushi, drink the sake, and don't stress about the wine list.
Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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