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In a decent restaurant the price of a glass of wine is usually anywhere from $8 to $18. It’s enough, especially these days, to make me think twice. The pain is compounded when my wife orders a glass of Champagne—so expensive, but she loves it. If we wanted a smaller meal, we would pay less. Why, if we want less wine, do we pay more? Are we being ripped off when buying wine by the glass? I decided to ask a couple of restaurant wine directors.
“I have to admit we do take a little bit of an advantage on a markup,” says Gillian Ballance, wine director for the PlumpJack Group, which owns many San Francisco Bay Area restaurants, including Jack Falstaff, Balboa Cafe, and Farm. But she justifies the price increase by saying it’s “the expense of having the bottle open just for one person to have a glass.”
David Rosoff, managing partner in LA’s Pizzeria Mozza and Osteria Mozza, explains, “Wine by the glass is not formatted to be a ripoff, but it’s generally a lower cost percentage than you run by the bottle. You try to make money by the glass to support your bottles.” The cost percentage is figured by dividing the cost of the menu item by the total sales of that item. At a typical cost percentage of 20 percent for wine by the glass (and a judicious five-ounce pour), a restaurant pays for the whole bottle when one customer buys a glass.
It sure sounds like a ripoff. But let’s look at it from the restaurateur’s perspective for a second. A lot of work goes into a wine-by-the-glass program at a restaurant like Mozza. Rosoff works with his wine buyers to find good deals on wines that are pleasing solo but also pair with a variety of dishes on the menu. A glass of wine, says Ballance, is also the opportunity for someone to try something he’s never heard of for 10 bucks instead of investing $25 for the bottle at retail. “You also have to assume in the glass price the inevitable wastage that occurs for keeping bottles open: spoilage (if the entire bottle doesn’t get poured in one or two nights), tastes that people request, glassware, and service.”
Compare wine to liquor or beer. Rosoff says, “People pay through the nose for a cocktail. They know what the vodka costs in a Cosmopolitan, but [they’ll] pay $12 for it.” Ballance adds that the cost of a pint of beer is probably about 50 cents to the restaurant, but many will sell it for $6, a markup that makes wine seem like a bargain.
Restaurants will often let guests taste a wine or two before ordering a glass, and, Ballance says, “trying a couple before buying makes that $10 glass of wine more worthwhile.” And she also suggests that you ask about the freshness of the open bottles. “In fact,” she notes, “when I go to a restaurant and I like all of the by-the-glass selections, I just ask them to pour me whichever bottle was opened most recently.” If she doesn’t know the brands being offered on the list, her go-to wines by the glass are Malbec from Argentina, Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, and Côtes du Rhône from France: “The quality in all those wines is uniformly pretty high. For $9 or $10 it’s hard to go wrong.”
You could save money by buying a bottle of wine and taking the remainder home (although this might tempt you to drink more than a glass). Some restaurants also offer a variety of half bottles. But sometimes a glass of wine is an enjoyable little luxury, and I’m not going to ask my wife to give up her occasional glass of $20 Champagne—not yet.
As long as most restaurants are this greedy, the U.S. will never become a nation of wine drinkers. I have no objection to a fair markup for a) notable wines and/or b) those that have been aged.
However, I'M TOTALLY FURIOUS at lower priced restos that 3x mark up house (bulk/Two Buck Chuck) wines that are still warm from the receiving dock. High turnover = lower overhead => deserves lower markup.
Anything alcoholic by the glass is high profit for the restaurant. They use a price point for what people will pay. It doesn't matter if it's a $1 beer for $6, or 50 cents worth of vodka in an $8 cocktail or a 5 oz pour of plonk chardonnay for whatever, they make a killing. Then, you have to subtract overhead for separate service for each glass vs one service for a bottle of wine, wastage (if...+READ
Anything alcoholic by the glass is high profit for the restaurant. They use a price point for what people will pay. It doesn't matter if it's a $1 beer for $6, or 50 cents worth of vodka in an $8 cocktail or a 5 oz pour of plonk chardonnay for whatever, they make a killing. Then, you have to subtract overhead for separate service for each glass vs one service for a bottle of wine, wastage (if they are reasonably scrupulous about not serving old opened wine), and so forth. But people buy by the glass, so it must be working out.-COLLAPSE
I'm more than glad to pay an extreme price by the glass if a restaurant has a Cruvinet machine that keeps the wine fresh. However, one of the most disappointing things for us is getting a glass of wine that's gone bad because it's sat on the shelf for 3-4 days. It's embarassing to send it back; and sometimes we're not sure if it's just the way the wine tastes or if the wine's bad (I don't pretend...+READ
I'm more than glad to pay an extreme price by the glass if a restaurant has a Cruvinet machine that keeps the wine fresh. However, one of the most disappointing things for us is getting a glass of wine that's gone bad because it's sat on the shelf for 3-4 days. It's embarassing to send it back; and sometimes we're not sure if it's just the way the wine tastes or if the wine's bad (I don't pretend to have a gilt palate). We've had superb $10 glasses of wine and awful $21 glasses.
When, and only when, the wine's been properly handled, I think it's a bargain to be able to pay the wholesale cost of the bottle for a glass to try. We end up buying a bottle if the glass is really delicious, and occasionally the house comps us the glass if we spring for the bottle. This has happened at a couple of high-end restaurants.-COLLAPSE
????? Pardon me, but those wines are likely also among the LEAST expensive wines offered. At $10 per glass, I wouldn't consider them a good value when the restaurant has paid possibly $6 a bottle -- maybe less -- for them.
Restaurants that feature a great wine-by-the-glass program can and do easily sell especially the more popular bottles out every night. and with the modern systems...+READ
????? Pardon me, but those wines are likely also among the LEAST expensive wines offered. At $10 per glass, I wouldn't consider them a good value when the restaurant has paid possibly $6 a bottle -- maybe less -- for them.
Restaurants that feature a great wine-by-the-glass program can and do easily sell especially the more popular bottles out every night. and with the modern systems available to preserve the freshness of the wine, there is no good reason to charge the cost of the whole bottle per glass.
Frankly I find that half-bottles are much better value in most cases.-COLLAPSE
I think this was a bit too soft on the restaurants. Of course its a ripoff, they're trying to make money. An awful lot of people want to drink wine with their dinner, and they are willing to pay a premium for 1 glass, just like getting a cocktail or beer. Charging $3 for a bottle of beer bought for $6-$7 a six-pack is a ripoff but people do it all the time. You pretty much have to accept it when...+READ
I think this was a bit too soft on the restaurants. Of course its a ripoff, they're trying to make money. An awful lot of people want to drink wine with their dinner, and they are willing to pay a premium for 1 glass, just like getting a cocktail or beer. Charging $3 for a bottle of beer bought for $6-$7 a six-pack is a ripoff but people do it all the time. You pretty much have to accept it when you're out. So yes its a total ripoff but there are worse things to get pissed off about.-COLLAPSE
katygirl -- thanks for the sharp eye. We've updated the copy to reflect the correct explanation of cost percentage.
Markups vary a lot.
In the San Francisco area, it's common for restaurants to mark wine up 3X wholesale / 2X undiscounted retail, and sell six-ounce pours for a quarter the cost of a 25-ounce bottle.
Some restaurants jack up their profits by increasing the markup or pouring only five ounces, but it's not that hard for a consumer to spot such practices and go elsewhere.
Since I don't like beer or hard alcohol, wine by the glass determines what bars i frequent. I never mind paying for wine by the glass when it's something different and exotic. When it's a label I know is cheap and they want 10 bucks for a glass, I know I'm getting ripped off. I wouldn't have paid 10 bucks for a whole bottle of that!
I wouldn't give most restaurants so much credit for "work[ing] with his wine buyers to find good deals on wines that are pleasing solo but also pair with a variety of dishes on the menu."
In real life, it's wine buyers beating up wholesalers for discounts and special by-the-glass pricing because that's where the volume is, to eke out even more profit than described here. At worst, glass lists...+READ
I wouldn't give most restaurants so much credit for "work[ing] with his wine buyers to find good deals on wines that are pleasing solo but also pair with a variety of dishes on the menu."
In real life, it's wine buyers beating up wholesalers for discounts and special by-the-glass pricing because that's where the volume is, to eke out even more profit than described here. At worst, glass lists become the plaything of a big liquor-based distributor who bought the thing fair and square with free menus, check presenters, crumbers, and god knows what else. I'd say maybe 5-10% of restaurants actually care what gets poured and are willing to pay as well as sell at a fair price. In fairness to Jordan, the interviewees seem to fall in this camp. For the rest, it's a circus.-COLLAPSE
Katygirl, thanks. Yes, I reversed my elements. Cost percentage is figured by dividing the cost of the product by the total sales of that product. Appreciate you pointing that out.
FYI
Cost percentage is calculated by dividing the cost of the product by the sales of the product. (Not the opposite!) It represents the portion of sales that was spent on the wine.
And yes, if you open a bottle to pour a glass, realistically you need to cover your cost of the entire bottle.
I'm a bit surprised that such a forward looking state does not have a "merlot-to-go" law.