Wine Markup in Dallas Restaurants: Alfonso Cevola’s Point of View

Wine markup in restaurants. It’s a hot national topic. How much is too much; how little is not enough. Corkage fees. Bring your own. Oh, where will the madness stop.

Today Alfonso Cevola, Italian Wine Director at Glazer’s, makes some interesting observations on his blog, On the Wine Trail in Italy.

Wine lists. Working with several clients over the last few weeks, and really finding some very different opinions. But more and more I am seeing restaurant people rethinking the way they serve wine in their places. Less popular is buying a wine for $17 and reselling it for $65. The wave I have been seeing, in Houston, in Dallas and Austin, is that same wine on a blackboard for $39. You know at $39 a party of four will buy two bottles. At $65 they might nurse that bottle of wine. So the establishment sells one bottle and had $48 in gross profit. Selling two bottle for $39 and they have $44 to work with. A smaller profit? Yes. A happier clientele? Most assuredly. And most likely to return sooner. This is a wave that is coming from San Francisco, from Southern California, New York, and Texas is right there, too, with these ideas. This is exciting stuff for the wine producers back in Italy who have a storeroom full of wine right now.

I’ve noticed lower wine prices in restaurants lately. I paid a little over $30 retail for a 2005 Arzuaga Crianza Ribera del Duero (Spain) and noticed it on the wine list (same vintage) at Maximo for $65.