9 Sip-Worthy Wines To Order At Olive Garden

Thirsty for a perfect glass of vino to elevate your favorite comfort food Italian? We're grabbing the best seat in the house and popping bottles with an industry expert to curate a bulletproof list of Olive Garden's most sippable wines.

Ever since making its Tuscan farmhouse-styled debut in Florida back in 1982, Olive Garden has been just as serious about its aged grapes as it's been about its never-ending pasta. What began as an 11-bottle list soon grew into an award-winning wine service which nabbed the Vibe Vista Award for Best Wine Program in 2018.

While we call ourselves wine lovers and wine moms, we were desperate for a professional's palate to help narrow down the sippers on what the Monterey Wine Festival named "America's Best Casual Dining Wine List" (Real talk: We also didn't want to be blinded by our unrelenting passion for bottomless breadsticks). We tapped Michelin-starred restaurant GM and certified sommelier Melissa Foster for this boozy task. Considering her nearly two decades in the hospitality industry in Chigaco and Los Angeles, we knew she could easily throw down on a glass or two of Napa cab. Maybe you still remember it, but as the old Olive Garden slogan goes, "When you're here, you're family." Now that you're here, you can treat yourself to the finest wines on the menu.

If you gravitate toward the sweeter side of the wine list, this easy-to-drink riesling's got your number. Brush off the other buzzy moscatos, white zins, and that new girl Confetti what-her-name, and grab a glass of Chateau Ste. Michelle.

"Riesling is such a great wine to pair with food," Melissa Foster explains. "It's light and crisp yet still has a complex fruitiness to it, and pairs especially well when food has a little bit of spiciness." Considering the rather demure heat index of the Olive Garden menu, you might have to comb through a bowl of Zuppa Toscana to gather enough of the spicy Italian sausage to coax forth the sweet stone fruit in this glass. This white riesling's roots go back to 1960s Washington state wine country when Chateau Ste. Michelle was pioneering wine-making through growing methods introduced by missionaries and fur traders from France.

"Personally I love rieslings with Thai food," the multitalented Foster, who also co-owns a Muay Thai gym, admits. She shares a few options from our current comfort food haunt, adding, "It can also be great to cut through the richness of a dish like fettuccine Alfredo or the creamy mushroom sauce." We'll take a Chateau Ste. Michelle and a bottomless bowl of chicken Alfredo, stat.

Feeling like a glass of something fresh as the morning dew? Order up what Melissa Foster calls "light and easy drinking," with a pinot grigio from the Cavit Collection. It's been called America's No. 1 Italian wine, but we promise we're just as comfortable with you calling it your No. 1 go-to sipper.

"Italy is synonymous with pinot grigio, so it's kind of hard to go wrong picking an Italian pinot grigio on the list," says Foster who chooses this one over a more floral and pricier pi-gri. Despite the enduring mythology around which of the two most affordable wines-by-glass to choose on a menu, the Cavit comes in well under the cost of the other crisp whites at less than $7 per glass — but we're also here for the snacks. Indulging in bright, green apple-ish grapes from the rich soils near the Dolomite Alps in northeastern Italy conjures up the kind of hunger that only be satisfied by an appetizer menu with cheesy stuff on it. Foster reviews the selections through the eyes of a buzzy Olive Garden guest, suggesting these perfect pairings: "Fried mozzarella, scampi, Alfredos, [and] of course the breadsticks."

If you pop by the Olive Garden for lunch and want to keep the wine as light as the unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks, you'll leave with your spirits feeling light as a feather after a glass of the Starborough sauvignon blanc. "This wine will be more crisp than the pinot grigio and have more citrus/zesty notes," says Melissa Foster, noting that these flavors go well with any of Olive Garden's hearty soups or its signature house salad with the iconic Italian dressing (extra peperoncini, please). Of course, there's a wine pairing for every salad, but you might not even need the greens after you taste this sauv blanc's luscious, grassy notes that hail straight from the sunny New Zealand coast.

"Personally, I sometimes drink this wine at home because it's an affordable option that is consistently good," Foster shares, inspiring all of us to kick off our shoes and will the password for our online ordering app into existence. "When I am looking at a list and unsure what to choose, I almost always default to wines that come from regions they are known for. Although different in style, sauvignon blanc from Sancerre, France, or Marlborough, New Zealand is always a solid choice," she says. Starborough Wines offers us the winning ticket for this Kiwi favorite.

"If you want a white wine with your entree this is it," confirms Melissa Foster while tapping the oaky, white florals and fruit-forward flavors of the California chardonnay from La Crema. Sip your way to a Sonoma County sunset, floating on the aromas of spicy Meyer lemon and the wheaty warmth of a toasty graham cracker crust you can drink. Saluti.

Describing this chard as "big, bold, and buttery," Foster assures us that this barrel-aged wine can handle whatever entree you happen to be throwing down. "This would stand up to the lasagna, chicken parm, or baked ziti," she says (Maybe make that a crowd-sized tray of cheesy baked ziti). Whether you ultimately go with the Lasagna Classico or Chicken Parmigiana, if you're dreaming of that ultra creamy chardonnay mouthfeel with a hint of butterscotch and honeysuckle that almost lands this wine on the dessert tray, try a glass of La Crema — and get the tiramisu to go.

Do not sleep on this red blend, Olive Garden fans. If it sounds like it came straight out of an old basket-weave bottle swiped from someone's Nonna's kitchen table in Campiglia Marittima, Italy, give it a second look (or at least a serious sip 'n swirl). This Italian red blend from Porta Vita is well worth a moment of your precious wine time, according to Melissa Foster. "When I see a blend on a by-the-glass list, it is safe to assume that wine was meant to be a crowd pleaser," she says.

Made from merlot, cotton candy-like schiava, and ancient teroldego grapes, this glass will go down smoother than silk on a shoe shine. Lean into the old-world traditions of the Vallagarina Valley in northern Italy to experience a medium-bodied bottle that bursts with berries and spice; and complements all the rich, meaty pasta and red sauce you can possibly muster. Foster explains, "Even when it comes to mass-produced wines there can be a lot of vintage variation. Blends are wineries' ways of navigating this and changing their grape blend percentages each year to try and achieve the same wine year after year." Maybe it's 50% merlot this year, but only the changing seasons will reveal the delicious magic behind next year's bottle.

It might seem like the ubiquitous choice of any Italian restaurant worth its salt, but that's because Chianti has been "Eat, Pray, Love"-ing it up since 13th century Tuscany (kind of like the movie). On behalf of the medieval winemakers of yore, Melissa Foster suggests tasting centuries of agricultural tradition in a single glass while asserting, "Chianti is almost always sippable."

This deep ruby red Chianti Classico comes from Rocca delle Macie, a vineyard where, back in the '70s, film producer Italo Zingarelli realized his dream of owning a patch of land practically drowning in rivers of Chianti wine. This particular flavor profile features a smooth blend of plums, cherries, and spice from four different varieties of grapes, of which, Foster explains, "I prefer Chianti over some of the bolder Tuscan reds because it's typically a medium-bodied wine with less tannins and can easily be paired with most items on the menu." Need some inspiration? We wouldn't be mad about a plate of spaghetti with meat sauce, extra meatballs, and another glass of Rocca delle Macie.

This sexy pinot noir isn't all looks and no substance. Having already spent six months of its life aging in French oak barrels by the time it hits your glass, it appears to have acquired a depth that reveals itself at first sip as a burst of strawberry followed by rich, toasty mocha. It's almost as if it leans in close to your ear and whispers, "Meiomi...," with every dreamy sip.

With roots that go back to the year 100 in Rome, pinot noir now creates a big industry splash from top wine producers in California who bank on idyllic seaside weather and luscious rolling hills to grow world-class grapes that are (to be Valley girl about it) like, so yummy, you guys. Calling it a "California pinot noir staple," Melissa Foster points out this offering from Meiomi (named after the indigenous term for "coast") as "easy drinking" with "a nice fruitiness to it that lends itself well to pairing with most items on the menu." Whether or not you can taste the Golden State's sea breeze, mineral-rich soils, and sunshiney afternoons over your cheesy chicken parmigiana is entirely up to you.

Under the wines that Olive Garden categorizes as "soft berry flavors," you'll find the Tuscan Red Blend from Head to Head. This sassy blend of sangiovese, syrah, and a splash of merlot stands up to the heartiest Italian family dinner as a "smooth, bold red wine with a hint of spice," according to Melissa Foster.

"I equate Tuscan blends to the Italian version of Napa red blends or Bordeaux style blends," Foster explains. To put that in bottomless breadsticks terms, this humble-sounding bottle packs the delectable fruits of wine making tradition from people who really know how to wine-down. Vintners also typically tweak the percentages of each vintage so the client (hi, that's us) cracks open the smoothest wine possible. Foster notes that a heartier meat dish would complement these flavors well, adding, "This would be great with the Italian sausage or meatballs." Luckily, with a little ingenuity, an extra side of meatballs can star in just about anything on the Olive Garden menu.

Wrapping up our exclusive Olive Garden wine tasting and whirlwind trip to the grape-iest regions of the world (without ever leaving our shrimp carbonara), we've reached what may be the pinnacle of the menu with the Robert Mondavi Private Selection California cabernet. "Napa cab, need I say more?" jokes Melisisa Foster. Agreed (Also can someone please pour us a tall glass of the finest wine on the menu?).

"Robert Mondavi was a pioneer of California wine making and has been producing wine since the '60s," Foster explains. Mondavi's To Kalon vineyard in Oakville, California — as well as the winemaker himself — have been lauded with plenty of awards, including Mondavi's own Critics Choice award from Wine Spectator for elevating California wine to a level that handily competes against the creme de la creme in global wine offerings. Of the trio of California cabernets on Olive Garden's wine list, Foster picks this one, adding, "It's a reputable brand name that is worth a sip." We'll cheers to that.