Italy by the glass, Princeton by the plate
Downtown Princeton · Princeton · Italian · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed July 23, 2026 · How we review
RagingWine reviewed La Mezzaluna’s wine list and gave it The Reliable — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The wine list at La Mezzaluna reads exactly like the restaurant looks — white tablecloths, safe choices, nothing to alarm the regulars. It's Italy top to bottom, which makes sense, and the list is tidy enough that you won't spend twenty minutes decoding it. What you won't find is much surprise.
Piedmont and Tuscany anchor the list, with Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino representing the prestige tier and Chianti Classico Riserva doing the heavy lifting in the middle. Veneto gets a nod via Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, and Montepulciano d'Abruzzo gives you the only real value play from southern Italy. The list won't win points for adventurousness — no Etna Rosso, no Vermentino, nothing from Campania or Friuli — but if you want a straightforward Italian red to go with your fettuccine, it delivers.
The by-the-glass program sits somewhere in the 10-to-20 range and leans predictable — expect the Pinot Grigio, probably a Chianti, and a token red for the table. Rotation appears minimal, which means you're likely looking at the same pours month to month. Fine for a weeknight dinner, not the place you're coming to explore glass by glass.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo — $45
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is the workhorse of this list — medium-bodied, earthy, built for pasta and red sauce. It's the bottle that drinks above its price bracket and doesn't pretend to be something it's not. Order it before they price it like Barolo.
Chianti Classico Riserva
Everyone reaches for the Barolo, but the Chianti Classico Riserva is doing more work per dollar on this list. It has the structure to handle veal and the acidity to cut through rich cream sauces — and it doesn't require a 30-minute wait to open up.
Brunello di Montalcino
Brunello is a magnificent wine — but at a Princeton trattoria with markup baked in, you're paying restaurant prices for a bottle that needs five more years in your cellar anyway. Unless it's a special occasion and you're splitting it with the table, the math doesn't work.
Barolo + Chicken Marsala
Marsala's savory, mushroomy depth finds a real match in Barolo's tar-and-rose structure. The wine's tannins cut through the richness without bullying the dish, and both are Italian enough that the pairing feels inevitable rather than clever.
The Bottom Line
La Mezzaluna isn't where you go to discover wine — it's where you go to drink something Italian and not think too hard about it. That's a perfectly valid reason to visit, as long as you know what you're signing up for.
· Princeton · Steakhouse
Ruth's Chris Princeton delivers a competent, corporately assembled wine program that covers the bases without taking any real swings. Markups are steep across the board — this is not the place to drop serious money on a bottle — but the all-by-the-glass format and the Trimbach and Catena Zapata picks give you room to drink well if you choose carefully. Come for the steak; drink strategically.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Palmer Square · Princeton · Italian / Pizza & Wine Bar
Teresa's has the bones of something genuinely good — a wine-bar concept in a charming Princeton setting, with an Italian-leaning list and the kind of casual-but-intentional vibe that makes you want to linger over a second glass. We'd call it a Wild Card because the setup is promising and the concept is right, but without a fully sourced list in hand, we're betting on potential as much as proof. Worth a walk-in to find out.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Princeton · Wine Shop with Tastings
Princeton Corkscrew is doing something genuinely useful: shop-floor pricing on a focused, mostly Old World list that punishes nobody for wanting to drink well without a restaurant markup. The Dubreuil-Fontaine Beaune Premier Cru at $67.50 and the Tardieu-Laurent Rhône Blanc at $19 both represent the kind of value that makes a wine list worth paying attention to. If you're in Princeton and care about what's in your glass, this deserves a stop.
Small but Thoughtful
Steal
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Princeton · Italian / American
Metro North's wine program is honest, approachable, and priced fairly for what it is — a crowd-pleasing list that gets out of the way and lets you eat dinner. If you're looking for discovery or depth, you won't find it here, but if you want a glass of something reliable at a fair price, the Nebbiolo and the Rosso di Montalcino are quietly doing the real work on this list.
Crowd Pleasers
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Princeton · Farm-to-Table / New American
Brick Farm Tavern has no business having a wine list this interesting, and that's exactly the point. The markups are real — this isn't a value destination — but the curation earns genuine respect, especially with the local Unionville pours and the Slovenian Rebula Brut as curveballs. If you're driving out to Princeton for the farm-to-table experience anyway, the wine list is a legitimate reason not to skip it.
Small but Thoughtful
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Princeton · Italian / Pizza
LaScala's Fire Princeton offers a functional, crowd-friendly wine list that does the job without making any bold moves. The by-the-glass selection is genuinely broad and pricing stays reasonable at the lower end, but markups on recognizable names like Kim Crawford and Veuve Clicquot are steep enough to notice. Send a friend here for a casual pizza night — just point them toward the Vermentino or the Prosecco and away from the big-name bottles.
Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Sandy Springs · Italian
Pendolino is doing something genuinely interesting with a very short Italian wine list — prioritizing producers and regions that actually reward curiosity over safe crowd-pleasers. We don't have pricing or glass program details to fully vet the value story, but the selection alone earns our attention. If you're eating Italian in Sandy Springs and you want more than the usual suspects, this list is worth your time.
Small but Thoughtful
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
Virginia-Highland · Decatur · Italian
La Tavola deserves a real wine list — the food and the room both demand one. Right now, five bottles with no reds and no whites is a disservice to a kitchen that's clearly cooking at a higher level than the wine program suggests. Order the Ca' Del Bosco if you're drinking wine, and hope they overhaul this list before your next visit.
Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
· Harrisburg · Italian
Mangia Qui is a genuinely appealing spot — the food, the room, and the service cadence all point toward a place that takes the dining experience seriously. The Italian wine focus is the right instinct for this kitchen, and duck confit with a solid Tuscan red is exactly what this kind of room should be delivering. We just don't have enough confirmed wine list detail yet to tell you whether to come for the bottle or stick to the food. Worth a visit — ask your server what's good on the wine list and see what happens.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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