Great Pizza, Wine List Phoning It In
Naperville · Chicago-style pizzeria / Italian-American · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed by the RagingWine Tasting Desk · July 2, 2026
RagingWine reviewed Lou Malnati's Pizzeria’s wine list and gave it The Lazy List — RagingWine’s Vibe-Check rating. How RagingWine reviews wine lists →
Wingman Metrics
The wine list at Lou Malnati's takes about twelve seconds to read — and that includes blinking. It's a short column of house wines tacked onto the back of a menu built around deep dish, which is fair enough, but there's no real effort here beyond checking a box that says 'yes, we serve wine.'
The list is essentially two house wines — a red and a white under the Lou Malnati's label — plus a Chianti, a California Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Pinot Grigio delle Venezie, all from value-tier, unnamed producers. There's no vintage information, no producer transparency, and no regional depth beyond the bare minimum of Italian and California table wine. If you're hoping for anything off the beaten path — a Barbera, a Montepulciano, anything that might actually sing with tomato sauce and sausage — you won't find it here. The list reads like it was built once and hasn't been revisited since.
You're looking at four to six pours, all landing between $7 and $9 a glass. The range is the same as the bottle list because the bottle list is basically the by-the-glass list. There's no rotation, no seasonal swap, and nothing to get excited about — but at least the pricing per glass is honest enough that you won't feel totally burned.
Lou Malnati's House Red — $7
At $7 a glass, the house red is the least painful option on the list. You're not drinking anything memorable, but it's priced low enough that it's just a pizza lubricant — and that's fine for what this place is.
Chianti
Nobody's ordering the Chianti at a deep-dish pizza joint, which is a shame because a simple Chianti is actually the most logical match on the list for a tomato-heavy pie. It's not a revelation, but it's doing more work with the food than the California Cab ever will.
Pinot Grigio delle Venezie
At $26 a bottle, you're paying a 160% markup on a wine retailing around $10. It's the least food-friendly option on a pizza menu and the worst value on the list. Order a beer or a Coke before you go here.
Chianti + Malnati Chicago Classic deep dish
The acidity in a basic Chianti is the only thing on this list actually built to cut through a deep dish loaded with chunky tomato sauce, sausage, and molten cheese. It won't blow your mind, but it'll do the job better than anything else available.
The Bottom Line
Lou Malnati's is a legitimately iconic pizza destination — but the wine list is an afterthought, marked up on cheap bottles with zero curation or ambition. Come for the deep dish, drink beer, and save the wine night for somewhere that cares.
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