Champagne Endorsed by Restaurants

[cabrales]

Sherry Lehman, Madison Ave, had several interesting bottles of champagne on offer on my recent visit. There was a bottle under $30 that Alain Senderens at Lucas-Carton had endorsed, and the name of the bottle included L-C. Also, a rose. In addition, I noticed Daniel's house champagne on offer for less than $30. None of the bottles have yet been sampled. (Daniel's house red was also available at a very reasonable price.)

[Fat Guy]

I've had both the Lucas Carton and the Daniel cuvees, in fact I had the Daniel cuvee less than 48 hours ago. Neither was anything special and neither represented a better value than a generically labeled NV Brut. In addition, while you can buy a whole bottle of the Daniel cuvee for $29 you will pay $13 for a single flute at Daniel's restaurants. Now that's a markup!

[Bux]

My recollection is that a bottle is $65 at Cafe Boulud. That's just a bit more than twice the retail price. Probably not out of line and maybe lower than the two and a half to three times retail I sometimes find. My impression is that a restaurant tries to sell four glasses for the price of a bottle although they usually pour at least five from it, but there may be waste. Champange may get six flutes (or more?) from a bottle, but maybe more lost wine. The mark up on wine is high and there's usually a premium in ordering by the glass. I don't generally like ordering by the glass because the markup seems most noticeable. In fact 50% of retail bottle price is often what a glass of wine costs in a top restaurant--or am I mistaken? How does this relate to the WSJ article about it being cheaper to eat out than cook at home. Let's see, I had a glass of champagne at the restaurant, that would have cost twice as much at home.

[Rail Paul]

In fact 50% of retail bottle price is often what a glass of wine costs in a top restaurant--or am I mistaken?

Bux -

that's been my experience as well.

Do you have a sense of how the wholesale and retail prices relate in New York? For example, does that $30 bottle at Sherry-Lehman cost S-L $20, or $25 or $28? In NJ, the retail price for spirits may be as low as a penny over wholesale price.

I'm assuming the endorser gets some royalty from the sale, probably paid to an offshore intellectual property or royalty trust to keep it outside US taxation.

Thanks

Paul