Just a stone’s throw from Porta Venezia, one of the beating hearts of Milan, we find Wineroad, a wine bar with kitchen run by Valerio Sisti, a longtime sommelier, former restaurateur and wine shop owner, with experience at the top of Fisar for many years and a well-rounded host.
Opened in 2013, the venue seats 40 and offers its patrons both lunch and appetizers or dinner. The menu is simple, but complete and suited to the wine shop concept that Wineroad expresses: charcuterie and cheese boards, tartare, pastas and in winter the soup. As dessert the tiramisu, much appreciated by the loyal clientele. Everything is produced in house, nothing ready-made is purchased.
The focus of the venue, however, is the wine
The list is especially dedicated to Italian wines, exclusively from native grape varieties and absolutely representative of the terroir, the first and most important criterion for selection. Some organic wines are present, but there is no particular interest in so-called natural wines. A real rarity, by now, for Milanese realities!
Outside of the domestic proposal, the following find their way into the map some foreign wine-growing areas of particular value, but above all deemed not replicable elsewhere: Burgundy, Champagne, and German Rieslings from Rhine and Mosel are examples.
The wine proposal that is very clear and consistent
- Only good wines. No selection based on any other criteria, such as by way of example: size of producer (small does not always mean good), type of farming (conventional, organic, biodynamic, natural, etc.), membership of producer in associations (e.g., FIVI or others).
- Wines representative of the area. Preference is given to non-invasive winemaking and aging techniques that might make the connection to the place of origin less strong.
- Only native grape varieties, At the place of origin/vocation. International grape varieties (French and German) only from their respective places of origin.
- Only one wine per winery (with very rare exceptions; not necessarily the most well-known or award-winning wine).
Not a paper list, but the tale at the table
There is no need for a “physical” wine list, because the owner brings more proposals to the table based on customers’ tastes. Valerio Sisti is a true wine “storyteller” with the ability to tell not only the wines he offers, but also the stories of the producers and the territory from which they come.
Absolutely fair prices by the standard to which Milan has now accustomed us; so both by the glass and by the bottle it is possible to drink excellent wines at a fair price.
A place where you can spend an evening of good wine with the excellent background of Italian singer-songwriter music, in a central area of the Lombard capital.
