by the glass

[Jerry D Mead]

The industry standard is pretty much three times wholesale, which works out to twice full mark-up retail, or maybe 2 1/2 times what you actually pay at a discount store.

The arguments above re overhead and stemware etc have some validity...but one must ask why wine drinkers should be asked to cover that overhead while the iced tea drinkers get a more or less free ride.

Also, why is it that the mark-up is never less at the places using Libby jelly-glass and not Reidel?

It has been my observation that a restaurant can get huge mileage (and increased sales)by employing more reasonable mark-ups and by learning that it's dollars and not percentage that the restarateur puts in the bank. When wine prices are really reasonable, I tend to order two bottles rather than one.

Why put D.P. on the list for $200 and never sell any, when if it were posted at retail the customer might be tempted to pop for a bottle even when drinking a special bottle wasn't part of the plan for the evening...and the restaurant would still but $30 or more in its pocket for pulling a cork...what's wrong with that?

I can tell you how I deal with overpriced lists. First, I do not drink great wines at restaurants...I drink them at home. I look for bargains, less popular wines and varieties and low profile bottlings. (Very often the last page in a big wine book will have the misc. stuff...wines from Argentina, Bulgaria, Spain or South Africa...and often at lower mark-ups and more time in bottle because they don't turn over rapidly.)

Chardonnays are all $30 and up? Check out the Sauvignon Blancs or look for a barrel-fermented Chenin Blanc like Chappellet.

Rieslings, from America or Germany, are almost always bargains these days, because they aren't fashionable and restaurants often don't take a full mark-up.

My general rule (special occasions and irresistable wines aside)is that a wine should not cost more than the price of one entree.

Call me cheap if you like, but I see wine as a beverage to accompany my meal when I'm in a restaurant...not some exotic experience. And if the wine is too outrageously priced, I switch to some other beverage...beer, tea or coffee. And I make a point of telling management that they may have got their mark-up on that cup of coffee, but they'd have made a bunch more dollars if only the wines had been a little more reasonably priced.

Let me hasten to add...I do not begrudge a restaurant any price they wish to charge for collectable and special wines they have cellared, that are tightly allocated or impossible to replace, and for which a wealthy clientel are willing to pay. All I ask is that they have some reasonably priced "beverage" wines for me to drink as well.

The "Value-Oriented" Curmudgeon