RESTAURANTS : Locanda Veneta--Good Enough to Blab About : Wines Are Reasonable, Creative, Mysterious

“Mystery Wine” is a game that wine mavens love to play. Bottles are hidden in brown paper bags and players must guess the origin, vintage and grape variety of the wine.

It’s a game that wine lovers should have a blast with at Locanda Veneta--and they won’t need any bags. So many of the wines are mysteries that you could read the entire labels on some and not get so much as a clue as to what you have.

This doesn’t mean, however, that this small list--less than three dozen wines--is poor. Indeed, from some of the clues I got, the wine list at this little cafe looks to be a sleeper. The pricing is reasonable, selection creative (with a heavy emphasis on Italian wines), and there are a few intriguing wines largely unknown to the public.

Unfortunately, the overall wine program has a few flaws that make the experience less than perfect.

First the pluses. Pricing is fair, with most bottles marked up about 2.5 times wholesale, and a few wines priced at just twice wholesale. Included in the latter list are an Italian Chardonnay (1986 Castelcosa) at $17.50 and an Italian Amarone (1982 Remo Farina) for $21.

You can get a bottle of good white wine (an Orvietto) for $13.50; the most expensive white wine of the 13 offered is $28. The best white wine is the 1986 Saintsbury Chardonnay; the best white wine value is one of the five wines offered at less than $20.

The list of 17 reds starts at $14 for a Chianti Classico and tops out at $36. The best red wine, and one well worth trying, is a 1964 Chianti Classico Riserva from the famed Dr. Fossi at $35; the best red wine value is the 1975 Chianti Classico Riserva from Dr. Fossi at a mere $24. (Suggested retail price on this wine is about $20.)

One of the mystery wines was listed as Ser Niccolo at $21. No, I had never heard of it either. So I asked to see the bottle. Not much help there since the entire label was printed in Italian, but if you read the fine print, you see the grape names Sangiovese and Canaiolo, two of the traditional grapes of Chianti. Clearly this was a Chianti-type wine; Hercule Poirot would be proud.

At lunch one day we tried a 1983 Refosco at $18.50. Refosco is a slightly peppery red grape variety that reminds me of Zinfandel. The wine is lighter than Zinfandel, however, and I feel it should be served slightly chilled. But alas, our bottle was served at room temperature, which on the day we dined was about 85 degrees.

Now for the minuses. Locanda Veneta has no ice buckets. And trying to get a wine chilled in one of those plastic gizmos that are designed to keep an already-chilled bottle cold is not easy.

Then too, the stemware at Locanda is only adequate: Those familiar clunky, thick-lipped eight-ouncers that look like jelly jars. And although the service is friendly, it is not very well informed; two servers filled our glasses nearly to the rim.

But with a wine list like this one, that’s no big deal. This is an adventurous list, and if you love a mystery, you’ll love Locanda.