Lettie Teague

Wine Columnist at The Wall Street Journal

Wine Columnist

Articles

Ready to venture outside your wine comfort zone? A few pointers

2 weeks ago | livemint.com | Lettie Teague

Curious about how intrepid other drinkers might be, I talked to some wine pros about how they encourage customers to venture outside their vinous comfort zones. Their respective methodologies were remarkably similar. When it comes to buying unknown wines, I have two key parameters: I’ll rarely spend more than $30 a bottle (and often much less), and I will never buy more than two bottles of a wine I don’t know. I overrode that second criterion recently—to my regret.
Ready to Venture Outside Your Wine Comfort Zone? A Few Pointers

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

Trying something new is one of the great pleasures of wine drinking—unless you get a dud and overspend doing it. Our wine columnist has a few guidelines for drinking adventurously but not recklessly. What kind of wine drinker are you? Some regularly search for an unknown and obscure wine; others prefer drinking the tried and true. I’m both kinds, depending on my mood and the situation. Sometimes I’ll throw caution—and cash—to the wind and buy a bottle I know nothing about.
What Does It Take to Sell Wine to Millennials and Gen Z? Donkeys, for One.

1 month ago | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

The creative, occasionally four-legged enticements some wineries offer these days might be drawing in younger drinkers. They’re certainly delighting a few older ones, our wine columnist included. But is the wine getting lost in all of it? Will wine drinking end when Boomers and Gen Xers no longer raise their glasses? If you’ve been reading the same headlines I have, you might think this could happen.
10 Juicy Red Wines to Drink Now

1 month ago | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

What does ‘juicy’ mean? A wine that is an uncomplicated, unmitigated pleasure to drink. It won’t develop over time, it won’t impress your wine-snob friends, but it will reliably raise the mood. These are the juicy reds our wine columnist is loving. Juicy is such an irresistible word, whether applied to a bit of gossip or a delicious red wine. Juicy reds are so luscious and ripe, they’re practically buoyant, and they’re the kind of red wines I’m drinking this spring.
Marguerite Henry's long ago gamble

1 month ago | equusmagazine.com | Lettie Teague
Want to Sell Off Some Bottles? Wine Lovers, Here Are Your Best 3 Options

1 month ago | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

Whether you’re a serious collector interested in auctioning off lots of blue-chip Burgundy or a wine lover simply looking to sell a bottle or two, here’s how to go about it. Maybe you’ve acquired a few too many bottles, or inherited a cellar from someone whose taste in wine doesn’t accord with your own.
Does a Wine’s Vintage Actually Matter?

2 months ago | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

To hear retailers and sommeliers tell it, few wine drinkers these days care about the year a wine was made. Our wine columnist’s thoughts on the matter are more complicated. I’m always interested to hear wine-buying stories from readers. Reader Clay Lorinsky recently reported that he ordered a bottle of the 2019 Jordan Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at a restaurant in Big Sky, Mont., but was presented with a bottle of the 2020 instead. The proprietor was unbothered.
The Section of the Wine Store Our Columnist Can’t Resist

2 months ago | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

Sometimes a store manager or sommelier will file a wine under ‘miscellaneous’ when it doesn’t fit comfortably elsewhere. Lettie Teague goes straight to this section for interesting discoveries and terrific bargains. The “miscellaneous” section of a wine shop might not be a vintner’s favorite location for his or her wine, but it’s one of my favorite places to shop.
White or Red Wine? We Asked WSJ Readers What They’re Drinking Now

Mar 27, 2025 | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

According to the 24th annual State of the U.S. Wine Industry report, released in January by Silicon Valley Bank, white wine sales grew faster than those of red this past year, with sales of Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc particularly strong. I wasn’t surprised: In recent years, I’ve noted an uptick in reader requests for white wine recommendations. I wondered how closely this study reflects the choices of WSJ readers, and if those choices reveal anything deeper about the way we drink now.
This White Burgundy Is Too Great a Bargain-for Now-to Keep Secret Any Longer

Mar 21, 2025 | wsj.com | Lettie Teague

I have a new favorite wine that I like so much, I even reconsidered writing about it. This bright, refreshing white is one of the few remaining bargains from Burgundy (pending President Trump’s threat of alcohol tariffs). Might any additional publicity further drive up the price? But since this column is, above all, about service to readers, I’ll confess the name of my crush: Aligoté.