By The Glass.

[Bux]

What's up with that. Do restaurants that sell certain wines only by the glass, feel that diners would balk at ordering these wines by the glass if they saw that the price came out almost double the cost of by the bottle?

We were in a vaguely Spanish restaurant the other night with friends and I thought a fino or a manzanilla might be a nice start to our meal, but I only saw them offered by the glass. The price seemed a bit exorbitant that way and an Albariño seemed a better buy. We'd get more and be assured of a freshly opened bottle. Come dessert time, the waiter brought the wine list with the dessert menu. Once again dessert wines were only offered by the glass. There were no prices by the bottle. One of my dining companions thought I should ask about the bottle price. Surely they would sell us a bottle, although with only three of us interested, we might have to find a half bottle or 500ml bottle. My request for the price of a bottle drew a reaction that indicated our waiter had never heard it before. He consulted with the manager with the response that it would be the same as about 8 glasses. We didn't pursue the issue any further.

I expect to pay a bit more per ounce when I buy wine by the glass rather than the bottle, but here they seemed to want to get the diner coming and going.