I was thinking the other day about your astute observations on the pricing of wines in the retail markets of the world. Certainly winemakers in many places are pricing their wine at "what the market will bear," and re-defining that term daily. Another whole area of interest to me, that seems to have the same type of reasoning applied to pricing, is in the area of wine prices in restaurants.
It was on a wine discussion forum on the subject of Italian wines, that a poster noted that as a customer in a restaurant in Italy, the writer was able to buy a wine to take home to the States cheaper than he could buy it at the local "enoteca" or wine shop. Now, when you think about it, this does make sense. Restaurants buy wine at wholesale, just like retail stores do. However, in the USA, they triple the wholesale cost, or double the retail cost, to determine the price on the wine list. In Italy that is not the case. There, the price is often equal to our retail price, or less, here in the States. I can recall ordering reserve wines, Brunellos, off the wine list in Italy, for less than our cost retail at home. Import cost alone does not make up for this difference.
The fact is, that Italian restaurants do not seem to consider wine as a "Profit Center", probably something that is taught in culinary schools here in the USA, but not over there. Our restaurants seem to have a million ways to justify their reasons: cost of glassware and washing it; inventory cost on all that wine ; sommelier; storing, etc. . . . . Nothing that the Italians don't have also! A few of our restaurants may have some slim justification for their pricing. After dining at The Sardine Factory in Monterey, I saw the full extent of good wine service, a list as thick as Websters dictionary, and bound just as well. But many places I've eaten have wine stored in hallways, no sommellier proper, waiters who have learned about wine only on being hired to serve it, with no real depth of knowledge, and prices to match The Sardine Factory. The plain fact is that wine drinkers pay a disproportionate share of the costs to dine out . . . they pay too much for the wine they order, because the are seen as suckers by the restaurants.
I had lunch with a group of 8 teetotalers two days ago, at a nice restaurant where I usually order a bottle of wine. These religious people ordered coffee and tea, and the re-fills kept coming . . . . How much trouble was that, compared to wine? Yet the re-fills were free (on the tea at least) and no big mark-up for the establishment! I couldnt help but think how much more the bill would have been with my normal group (at 8 people, 3 bottles of wine minmum). Where was all that extra profit? They just didn't get it from this group.
Well, I hope that this "rant" will not have the effect of ruining wine pricing in Italian restaurants . . . it is probably more likely than improving the costs in restaurants here at home. But I have to say it, I have seen how the other guys do it, and they consider wine as a food, not as a profit center, and serve and price it accordingly. I, for one, appreciate it.
[Ed. Note: See David and Brendan's opinions in the Winemakers' Diary.]
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Restaurant Wine Pricing
Mark Brown, April 2, 2001
Re: Restaurant Wine Pricing
Ed Hale, April 3, 2001Re: Restaurant Wine Pricing
A. Simpcox, April 3, 2001Re: Restaurant Wine Pricing
Thomas Mercer-Hursh, April 7, 2001
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Ed Hale, April 4, 2001
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A. Simpcox, April 3, 2001
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Ed Hale, April 7, 2001Re: Restaurant Wine Pricing
A. Simpcox, April 7, 2001
Re: Restaurant Wine Pricing
Ed Hale, April 9, 2001
Re: Restaurant Wine Pricing
Fernando Divina, August 1, 2001 RETURN