Restaurant wine

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Restaurant wine

Food is divine with wine, so wine in a restaurant should be sublime, right? Unfortunately, not necessarily.

You do not have to be a wine expert to recognize restaurants often charge two or three times as much than the same wine costs you when you buy it in a store.

Here are some explanations and strategies for enjoying wine without fearing the restaurant ravaged you. Also, some insight into the restaurateur’s issues.

Restaurants must make a profit; they can’t sell wine for same price you pay for it in a store. You are not just buying a bottle of wine—you pay for the restaurant to buy and store the wine, you pay for sommelier or employee in charge of wine, you pay for wastage of bottles gone bad or rejected by customers.

The restaurant also pays a 14% excise tax you do not, must carry liability insurance, and faces other expenses that don’t affect your wine-store purchase.

An insight: because some expenses of wine selection are the same no matter the price of the wine, the bottle cost often determines markup. If retail price is between $8 and $20, expect to pay double or triple what the wine would cost you in a store. When the wine gets more expensive, it might cost you twice the restaurant paid.

Markups apply to beer and spirits, too. Restaurants want to make customers happy, but they also want to make money and stay in business.

The old saying in the restaurant business is your customers will eat you poor and drink you rich.

Here are some wine list survival tips.