How Restaurants Must Evolve for the Changing Wine Consumer

December 29th, 2008

I had a great meal last night at Trestle on Tenth, a cozy Swiss restaurant around the corner from my apartment. I was with my immediate family plus my aunt, uncle, and cousin, who love collecting wine as well. Between my Dad and my Uncle, we brought seven bottles of wine to dinner. We started with a buttery Far Niente Chardonnay then had a complex White Chateauneuf-du-Pape. For reds we had a hardy Remirez de Ganuza 1994 Rioja, a South African Shiraz, and a Walla Walla Washington State Cabernet. The wines were as diverse as can be so not all of them pleased everybody. But it didn’t matter, there was little risk involved with the $20 corkage fee assigned to each bottle. We weren’t paying a 100% markup for each bottle like we normally would, had we ordered from the wine list.

The restaurant was near empty on a Sunday night at 7:30. Despite our rowdiness and our quirks, I think they were glad to have our business. Nobody questioned the fact that we brought our own wine. Truthfully, how could they? In today’s economy, avoiding a restaurant markup is an easy way to save money. A recent survey by the Wine Market Council showed the majority of participants were eating out less, with the most significant decline (39%) in fine dining.

Of course everybody needs a reprieve from the stress that all of this causes and people may still be gripping the bottle to calm their woes. But they aren’t buying $100 bottles, they’re looking for the sweet spot of great wines at affordable prices in the $15 range. I know this from experience, promoting wine every day on WineExpress.com, but it’s no secret. Knowing all this, fewer people will needlessly pay $45 in a restaurant for a wine that’s on sale for $15 at the wine shop around the corner. Restaurants will need to wise up to meet the changing consumer, or risk facing empty tables.

My predictions for what needs to happen:

  • BYOB will become more of a standard habit, with nominal corkage fees
  • If not, prices will have to come down. Consumers are smart and know what a wine should cost and what it costs on a menu. They simply won’t pay double.
  • If not, menu prices will have to come down. I get that restaurants make most of their money on drinks. Maybe it’s unreasonable to expect prices to come down on wine, but people need some incentive to open their wallets. Maybe more prixe-fixe meals or weekly specials?

Something’s gotta give, or I’m afraid restaurants might have a painful year (or more?) ahead of them.

Related Posts:
Simple Asian Salmon, Roasted with Bread Crumbs

Is There an American Cuisine?

Dining for Darfur

Filed under BYOB, New American, Steakhouse | Comments (4)

4 Responses to “How Restaurants Must Evolve for the Changing Wine Consumer”

  1. Bill Fennell on December 29, 2008 11:41 pm

    Seems weird to me to bring your own wine to a restaurant. Would you bring your own beer to a bar?

  2. adam strum on December 30, 2008 12:58 pm

    Actually the standard markup for wine in a restaurant is 2.5 to 3Xs it’s cost.

    Really way too much. Some restaurants use a “sliding scale” which lowers the ratio as you purchase higher priced wines.

    FYI Bill,
    When you pay corkage it generally represents the profit a restaurant will earn from an average bottle of wine purchased from the wine list. So Perhaps an average bottle is $35.00 then the $20.00 corkage fee represents this and the restaurant can makes money on all of the food that the client purchases.

    Adam

  3. E. on December 30, 2008 6:36 pm

    Hey Bill,
    I’ve never brought beer into a bar but I have brought whiskey.

  4. Glenn on December 30, 2008 11:09 pm

    My new favorite dining spot in my little town in Westchester County, NY is an Italian restaurant that charges absolutely no corkage fee. While all the over-priced restaurants in town are struggling to stay alive, this place is constantly packed with people who BYO. The no corkage fee–and some pretty decent Italian grub–is why I am a loyal customer who has recommended the place to handfuls of others. No corkage fee is a completely different model that seems to be working for one particular restaurant.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

← | →