Pizza joint hiding a legit wine habit
Near Campus / Kirkwood · Bloomington · Gourmet Pizza, American Pub Fare · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 10, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Lennie's’s wine list and gave it The Wild Card — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
You walk into a buzzy pizza-and-beer spot on Kirkwood, and the last thing you expect is a German Riesling from the Pfalz sitting next to a Provence rosé. The wine list is short, but someone clearly put thought into it — this isn't the usual three-whites-three-reds bar dump. For a college-adjacent pub, that alone earns some respect.
About 15–20 wines cover more ground than you'd guess: California dominates with North Coast value bottles and a couple of Paso Robles cabs, but there's an Italian Primitivo from Puglia, a solid Languedoc red blend, and — genuinely — a Villa Wolf Riesling from Pfalz that has no business being this good on a pizza menu. The local nod to Oliver Winery's sweet rosé is a smart play for the IU crowd who grew up on it. Gaps show up in the mid-tier: no Burgundy, no Rhône, no Spanish anything, and the bottle ceiling of $63 (Daou Reserve Cab) keeps this squarely in the approachable lane. It's not a deep cellar, but the regional spread punches above its weight class for a spot that leads with craft beer.
Ten to twelve options by the glass is generous for a place this size, and the range actually tracks the bottle list rather than just defaulting to house pours. The Böen Pinot Noir at $11.50, the Altemura Primitivo at $10.25, and the Peyrassol Provence rosé at $9.75 are all real wines, not filler. The house pours at $7.25 are mystery bottles, which is always a minor gamble — but the half-price happy hour makes the named pours very easy to justify.
Villa Wolf Riesling, Pfalz, Germany — $8.25/glass, $31/bottle — $31/bottle
Villa Wolf is a Wolfgang Puck-connected Pfalz producer making genuinely food-friendly Riesling, and at $31 a bottle it's priced close to retail. It's the smartest buy on the list and cuts right through the richness of a cheese-heavy pizza.
Altemura Primitivo, Puglia, Italy — $10.25/glass, $39/bottle
Most people scroll past anything they can't pronounce and land on the Cabernet. Big mistake. This Primitivo is the Italian cousin of Zinfandel — dark fruit, a little smoke, enough structure to handle a meat-loaded pizza — and it's one of the more interesting bottles on the list.
Dough Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, California — $46/bottle
Dough Cab retails around $15, which puts this bottle at a 207% markup — the worst value math on the list. It's a perfectly drinkable, unremarkable grocery-store Cab, and you're paying nearly three times what it's worth. Order the Villa Wolf instead.
Altemura Primitivo, Puglia, Italy + Specialty Meat Pizza
Primitivo has the weight and fruit density to match salty cured meats without getting steamrolled by them. It's a natural with anything heavy on pepperoni, sausage, or spicy toppings — and it makes the pizza taste more expensive than it is.
Monday–Thursday — Half-price wine from 3–6pm, Monday through Thursday. Scope of the discount (all wines vs. select bottles) isn't confirmed, but named by-the-glass pours like Böen Pinot Noir and Altemura Primitivo appear to be included based on available menu and social media data.
🎲 The Bottom Line
Lennie's is a pizza-and-beer place that accidentally has a wine list worth paying attention to — especially during that Mon–Thu happy hour when the Primitivo and the Riesling drop to near-grocery prices. Don't come here to geek out on wine, but don't ignore the list either.
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Grocery Store
Fair
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
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Acceptable
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Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
MIA
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Acceptable
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Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Crowd Pleasers
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Grocery Store
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Rotating Cast
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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Mori is swinging bigger on wine than any casual Japanese spot in Bloomington has a right to, and we respect the effort. The markups and the California-red tunnel vision hold it back from being a destination wine stop, but if you're already there for sushi, there's a genuinely interesting bottle or two worth finding.
Plays It Safe
Steep
Basic Stemmed
Willing but Green
Set & Forget
Acceptable
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