Review: Wines of Cantoro, Summer 2025 Releases
Midway between Detroit and Ann Arbor, in the kind of Michigan suburb where affluence is casually assumed, Cantoro Market and Trattoria feels like a playground for foodies with a penchant for Italian cuisine. To borrow (and lightly misuse) Bill Hader and Stefon’s cadence: this place has everything. Fifty-five thousand square feet of pastas, specialty olive oils, obscure Italian products from smaller companies with limited importing, espresso machines you’ll buy and never master and, importantly, a vast amount of real estate devoted to wine. If that isn’t enough, there’s also a basement cellar, doubling as both a playground for oenophiles and a heavy reminder of one’s financial and existential mortality. Super Tuscans and Premier Cru Bordeaux are perched in orderly rows, the way most of us poors store weeknight Malbecs, except these bottles yodel “corporate acquisition” and “Happy 50th Anniversary” more than they do “Tuesday Night Lasagna.”
Cantoro doesn’t stop at importing, either. They’ve carved out a tidy little niche with an in-house label produced through partnerships with Italian vineyards running north to south. The wines are smartly chosen, varied, and affordable. At roughly $9 a bottle (summer 2025 pre-tariff pricing), they’re the kind of wines you can open on a Tuesday without guilt, unless you’ve trained your palate to demand Château Haut-Brion with leftovers. In which case, please reconsider some things about yourself.
We sampled a handful of these offerings. Full thoughts below, but in sum: Cantoro knows its audience and certainly knows what it’s doing: making the concept “everyday Italian” feel just a shade more indulgent than normal.
2022 Cantoro Montepulciano D’Abruzzo DOC – Tart black cherry and plum show up at first, with strawberry trailing just enough to keep things lively. Blackberry and cherry take center stage on the palate, but a grind of black pepper and oak keep them from getting too comfortable. Very dry with medium acidity, it finishes with a touch of graphite. It’s a bottle that delivers the goods without having to shout about it. A-
2022 Cantoro Primitivo Red Blend – On the nose, this has a comfortable, classic profile of cherry, blueberry, and vanilla. It is the sort of wine that doesn’t feel the need to prove anything because it’s a red blend and, for better or worse, what you see (which is a nice garnet shade) is what you get. The palate is medium-bodied and carries notes of cherry and coffee at first, with layers of coffee and leather as it evolves. The tannins are well-rounded and never overbearing, with a finish leaning heavily on the fruit and lasting just long enough. The sort of table wine to pick up when heading to an easy dinner at a friend’s house, and a stop at home isn’t in the cards. B+
NV Cantoro Aglianico Campania IGT – Much like many Italians from Detroit I have had the pleasure to know throughout my lifetime, this Aglianico doesn’t waste time with small talk. It comes right at you with a profile of violets, fresh potting soil and blackberries that feels equal parts familiar and rustic. The palate maintains the direction set on the nose, with ripe blackberry front and center, quickly joined by dark chocolate, black pepper and cedar. The tannins are velvety enough to smooth any brutishness without diminishing anything of interest, leaving the whole experience approachable but still maintaining a bold profile. It’s a wine grounded but constructed in such a way to serve as a reminder that southern Italy has been doing this for centuries and doesn’t feel the need to complicate the process. B+
2023 Cantoro Pecorino Colline Pescaresi IGP – This finds a slightly sour edge running throughout with green apple, lemon and peach all fighting for attention, eventually settling down with time in the glass. The finish delivers a heavy note of herbs, delivering a very distinct European wine feel elevating the lemon note above all else. It’s approachable but also interesting enough to return for another sip to solve its puzzle. B
NV Cantoro Moscato Veneto IGT – Straw colored in the glass, this wine stops short of holding up a sign informing the drinker that “Thursday night is college night.” The nose is a highly fragrant floral section of lilies and honeysuckle before crashing straight into the dessert counter with notes of key lime pie and Asian pear. On the palate, green apple candy and peaches pile on, and the palate is spritzy, fruity, and light-to-medium in body, which is another way of saying it’s having too much fun to care about depth. The finish is nothing but an encore of lime soda and green apple Jolly Rancher. It’s bright, cheeky, and almost certainly too pleased with itself. But if I’m being honest, it gives off a slightly nostalgic charm for yesteryear, decades before I started pairing my leftovers with Château Haut-Brion. C+
each about $9
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