House Wine

[Carlovski]

Why does house wine always tend to be of such low quality?

Surely, with a bit of thought, and intelligent pricing it could be best buy for the customer, and provide a decent amount of profit for the restauranteur.

There is plenty of drinkable, food friendly wine of decent quality (And the occasional Gem) in the £5-£8 price bracket (I'm talking in the UK here BTW), and even for a bit cheaper than that.

And that's buying a single bottle, retail. Surely a restaurant, and especially a chain, or part of an empire could negoitiate a lower price for a load of cases.

Why not clear out those mid priced wines - the ones people choose just so they aren't being seen to be choosing the cheapest (I wonder what the sales figure are like for the '2nd cheapest chardonnay'?), keep the more expensive wines and have a selection of interesting, well chosen wines, at the same price point at a quid or two more than the usual house plonk?

[wineserver]

Though I have never had the pleasure of visiting England, its no secret that wine by the glass programs in the restaurant biz there are not the same as here in the United States. Approximately 15 to 18 years ago, the restaurant biz in the US realized the huge potential for sales and profit through offering a broader selection of higher quality wine by the glass. Truth is, I think many restaurateurs have gone way overboard with ridiculously huge numbers of by the glass, often with little true variety. Today, a good restaurant will offer some 8-15 wines by the glass and more often than not these wines are thoughtfully chosen, diverse, moderate to high quality selections. Wine by the glass pricing is often the steepest in terms of margin for the restaurant, but this is often used to balance a lower margin on wines sold by the bottle.

[ctgm]

There are some real gems at around £8 but if you found these in a restaurant then you would be expecting to pay £25 a bottle (then the 10-12.5% service charge).

The general rule of thumb is to triple the retail price to get the restaurant price, so a £11 bottle is going to be about £3.60 in the shops and I have yet to find anything decent (drinkable - yes) at that price.

[wineserver]

In the US, an $8.00 glass of wine is typically poured from a bottle that cost the restaurant between $8.00 and $12.00. This is a huge range but it oftens falls right in the middle. I would say that most operators want to run a 30% cost of goods on wine by the glass. Wine by the bottle is a different story with a sliding scale of margin most often employed. A bottle that cost the restaurant $8.00 is often sold for $24.00, while a bottle that cost the restaurant $24.00 is often sold for $60.00, and finally, a bottle that costs the restaurant over $50.00 is often sold for twice cost. These are just generalities but they are fairly accurate.

Edited December 8, 2003 by wineserver (log)

[ctgm]

I think that is pretty much the same as here in the UK although wine by the glass maybe better "value"

There is a restaurant here (can't remember the name) in London that if a wine costs under (I think) £20 they put a flat £10 on and for more expensive wines they put a max of £20 on. That means that your 1st growths are more affordable!

There is also a small group of restaurants (Brinkleys, Joe's Brasserie, The Wine Gallery etc) that has very "cheap" wine. They used to have a wine shop next door where you could buy the wine off the shelf and have in the restaurant. The shop wasn't the cheapest but it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately the gastronomic experience isn't the greatest although it isn't too bad.

Nothing like a restaurant that I used to go to in Bordeaux when I lived there - The Bistro de Sommelier. I used to go once a month for a bit of a blow outwith some friends and we always used to have a couple of cheaper wines and then go for something like a Mouton/Latour/Lafite 1983 at 400 francs (about $64) (11 years ago now) with a set menu of 96 francs. Also remember Climens 1983 was 250 francs (about $40).