Buying Wine at a Restaurant?

It is no secret that any given wine is going to be more expensive when ordered at a restaurant than if purchased from a store. But just how much more expensive? In a post-COVID-shutdown society the costs that restaurants have to cover have really gone up. Wine is no exception, but the rising cost of wine at restaurants have greatly out paced the other costs.So how much does that bottle of wine really cost? There is the production cost. Then factor in transportation, and perhaps import taxes. Add in some marketing from time to time and then you get pretty close to the wholesale price. Add roughly about 30% to that and you get very close to the retail price. Buy that bottle at a restaurant and you can tack on another, on average, 30-40% on top of that! Ooofff. I hope you like that wine which the restaurant “can’t” let you taste before you order!I love drinking wine at dinner, especially at a nice restaurant, but I also don’t like throwing my money out of the window. That’s what you might be doing if you order a bottle of wine at certain restaurants. Before I decide to order a bottle of wine I want to gauge how a restaurant thinks about its wine. There are several parts that go into how a restaurant thinks about its wine, and how a restaurant thinks about its wine gives me some insight into the culture of that restaurant.Here are a few things that I look for before ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant. First and Foremost: Can I taste the wine before ordering? If the answer is “No” then don’t buy unless you absolutely know that wine, and/or you are dead set on getting it. Getting to taste it does SO MANY things. Not only does it tell me the obvious of “do I like it or not,” but it tells me if they are stingy with their wine. Restaurants stingy with wine tend to not sell a lot, and therefore tend to not know wine. This leads to storage and service. Try to take a look at where the restaurant stores its wine; is it out of the light, stored, and then SERVED, at the correct temperature? A restaurant that thinks about its wine, that pays attention to it, will have better wine, more worthy of your money!After all that I do consider the mark up. If the mark up is in the tune of 40% then that mark up should come with an experience! If the restaurant doesn’t know wine then why I am going to pay up to 40% more for that bottle?!? Can someone at the restaurant advise me on a wine that will pair correctly with my dinner? Will they present and pour the wine? If it needs to be decanted can they do that? Do they even know if needs that? What am I paying for?Restaurants have to make money, but I want to hold people accountable for that value. If a restaurant can’t do the things or answer the questions listed above, then stick to ordering just a glass of wine, or maybe even a glass of tea!