At Mama Ricotta’s, the Midtown Charlotte Italian restaurant founder Frank Scibelli has run since 1992 and that has been voted the region’s Best Italian Restaurant year after year, a self-pour wine wall brings the same warmth that fills the dining room’s big family-style booths straight to the glass – guests can now pour their own wine, at their own pace.

A rotating selection of wines is on tap, available in small tasting pours, half-glasses, or full glasses, with each bottle preserved under nitrogen or argon technology so every pour tastes as fresh as the first.

Installed near the open kitchen and wood-burning oven, where sauces, bread, and mozzarella are made fresh daily and pasta is rolled with Double Zero flour imported from Italy, the wine wall gives guests an easy way to match a Chianti to a wood-fired pizza or a Pinot Grigio to a plate of housemade pasta.

For the Mama Ricotta’s team, the self-pour wall means no opened bottle goes to waste and no server is tied up pouring samples for the big family gatherings that fill the dining room. For guests, it means the freedom to taste before they commit, then settle in with a glass alongside Charlotte’s favorite plate of penne alla vodka.