Wine

Restaurants offer us a great meal without dirtying our own dishes, romantic interludes, an office with a kitchen, and a myriad of other devices. Like an iceberg, the bulk of restaurant preparedness lies hidden from our view. We rarely consider that chefs and prep cooks have been preparing dishes all day, hosts have been answering phones and planning seating charts, bartenders and managers have conducted thorough inventories and orders, and the restaurant has been cleaned from head to toe in preparation for the next evening’s seating. I thought it might be fun to take a peek at the ‘behind-the-scenes’ world of restaurant wine.

We all know that restaurants charge more for wine than wine shops. This is a necessary encumbrance due to the high cost of operating a restaurant. You could stash a bottle of Blue Nun in the Minivan and make several trips out through the course of the evening to ‘kiss the baby’, or you could bring the baby inside and pay corkage. Corkage is a relatively small fee that restaurants charge guests who choose to bring their own wine. I would recommend calling the restaurant ahead of time to verify whether or not they’ll allow you to bring a bottle, and what the cost is. Keep in mind that the corkage might be more than ten dollars. If you bring a bottle of wine that costs less than ten dollars, you probably won’t be saving any money by bringing it. Most restaurants only appreciate it when you bring an aged bottle from your cellar (or a reputable wine shop) or a relatively expensive bottle (that isn’t on their wine list). Most restaurants prefer that you only bring one bottle.

Restaurant wine pricing can be very difficult to decipher. Regardless of pricing strategy, I’ll rarely recommend the most expensive or least expensive bottle on the menu. I find that most of the best value wines often cost twice as much as the cheapest wine on the list. The lower priced wines often have the highest mark-up, and the most expensive wine rarely sells.

Almost all restaurants sell wine ‘by-the-glass’. This allows the option of not drinking an entire bottle while dining alone, sampling a few different wines, and pairing wines with each course. Don’t be immediately alarmed if you find that different restaurants have radically different prices for their glass pours. Restaurants typically pour between four to six ounces per glass. If Blackstone Chardonnay was $24 a bottle, a restaurant might pour a four-ounce glass for $4, while another restaurant might sell a six-ounce glass for $6. You are paying roughly $1 per ounce at both restaurants. Be sure to ask a server or bartender what each restaurant’s glass pour is. If you are driving, it also helps to know that 3-four ounce glasses of wine and 2-six ounce glasses of wine both equal half of a bottle (and 4-three ounce Martinis equals half of a bottle of liquor).

It is difficult for restaurants to determine how many wines to sell by the glass. In a perfect world, every bottle of wine would be sold during the day that it was opened. Most restaurants have great movement with their basic wines (Chard, Cab, Merlot, Pinot Noir, etc), but the fringe wines move slowly (Chianti, Zinfandel, Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer). I don’t drink wine that has been open longer than three days, and I wouldn’t recommend doing so in a restaurant. If at all possible, sit at the bar before your meal, and glance over the wines as you sip an aperitif. If the restaurant has any business, you’ll see the bartender pulling corks from fresh wines. These are the wines that you want to order by the glass.

The best restaurant advice that I can give you is to ask your server or wine steward to recommend the wine that they feel represents the very best value, regardless of price. They’ll often ask you a few questions about your tastes, make inquiries concerning your entrée selections, and generally become extremely interested in maximizing your enjoyment of the remainder of the evening. I wouldn’t be surprised if the chosen wine is decanted and served in the restaurant’s finest stemware. Just be sure to offer a taste to the recommending party; that will cement your relationship. Interestingly enough, the bottle that they recommend will often cost twice as much as the cheapest bottle on the list.

Contact Matt Devan at wineguy@lagniappemobile.com.

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