by the glass

[Randy Caparoso]

Well, spoilage is not really a factor at all except in restaurants where enormous numbers of wines are offered by the glass.

Most restaurants do a dozen or so selections by the glass, give or take. The reason why it's predominantly the pedestrian stuff that's offered by the glass is because the lowest cost things are the ones where restaurants can make some money. Fact is, these days you really can't get away with marking up premium wines (those retailing for, say, $10-$24) much more than 2.5 times. For superpremiums (retail items well above $25), restaurants are lucky to get 2 times or 50% cost. You have to be really fancy and good at what you do. Subsequently, restaurants make up for the lower markups on their bottle lists by getting 3 to 5 times on their "house" programs, which are invariably the lower quality wines you see retailing for under $10. And of course, for any restaurant to conduct a wine program with any degree of respectability, they still have to carry a decent bottle list. So it's almost as if the more serious you make your bottle list, the more you need to make on your glasses and "house" wines.