With a new harvest facing us, the market still seems to be uncertain. Wineries are still holding some pretty high inventories and wondering what to do with the new juice coming in. It will be a couple more months before we really know what’s going on, but I think we can already look back and see what changes consumers have made and wonder how it will filter down to our own backyard. One trend is that wine drinkers have discovered wine price and wine quality are generally not related. (You regular readers know I’ve often belabored the point of price being related to availability not quality.)
Consumers have also discovered that screw tops and bags-in-a-box are good values and very drinkable. Studies keep saying that when price isn’t known in blind tastings, average consumers virtually always select the cheaper wine as more desirable, and not until they learn the price do they select the more expensive wines. It’s amazing that we Americans have somehow learned that, because it’s expensive, it must be good. We can probably all think of a lot of other products—beside wine—where that’s also true.
Despite this phenomenon, there’s currently a big backlog in high-end wines, in part because a significant amount of higher-priced wines are sold in restaurants, and people are dining out less. The curtailment of business dinner expense accounts, I’m sure, has had an effect on this as well. It suddenly isn’t fashionable to order the most expensive wine on the list just to impress your business clients and colleagues. The interesting thing I’ve noticed about this is that restaurants still haven’t lowered their exorbitant markups—they still expect the wine industry to be their profit margin. But this lack of restaurant sales makes it inevitable that wine will cause a backup in the market chain and, ultimately, to the winery.
An interesting column in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher (two of my favorite columnists) brought up some interesting points. With the exception of wine bars, which specialize in wine-by-the-glass programs, many restaurants charge enough for a glass to pay for the whole bottle. Even if they charge just one-fourth the cost of the bottle (four glasses per bottle if you’re getting an honest 6-ounce pour), remember that bottle was marked up 2.5 to 3 times wholesale—in some cases, retail. It seems a shame that a glass of wine costs more than a good old gin and tonic or brandy and orange juice.
Moral of the story: Buy a half-bottle if it’s available or a full bottle, since current laws let you take home leftover wine. They also suggest you check the vintage carefully, since many establishments aren’t buying regularly and might well be trying to unload some older wines. With a lot of wines made to drink young and fresh—especially whites—this may not be good.
House wines are always an interesting phenomenon. Some are very good, and others leave much to be desired, but as wine quality overall improves, so do house wines. You shouldn’t be embarrassed to have a fairly priced house wine when the others are all overpriced. As for variety, Chardonnay is usually the disaster to order. Most are overpriced, just because they’re Chardonnay, and probably over-oaked also. Other white varieties are equally delightful (or better, in my opinion), so don’t be afraid of Pinot Gris (Grigio), Sauvignon Blanc and dry Riesling (Australian, Clare Valley is a good bet to be dry). If buying by the glass, it’s also a good time to experiment with new varieties. How about a Vermentino or an Albariño for a new white?
Gaiter and Brecher also suggest you avoid the second-cheapest wine on the list, because it’s usually a bigger rip-off. Diners don’t want to appear cheap, so they’ll buy the second lowest-priced wine. Restaurateurs know this, and frequently use it as a bigger gouger.
The most frequent option diners use to make their budget stretch is to BYOB. It’s generally an accepted practice in California, and especially here in Wine Country, but a new, frightening trend is appearing: the $20 plus corkage fee. I know if I’m given a choice of going out to dinner, I’ll select a restaurant that doesn’t want a left leg and your first born for corkage. I also assume that an exorbitant corkage fee is an indication of the restaurant’s markup on the wine list. What other industry works on 200 to 300 percent markups…other than jewelry?
It also doesn’t bother me, when I’m being charged a ridiculous corkage fee, to take advantage of all the amenities I’m paying for, including a fresh glass for each wine, an ice bucket for the whites and any other amenity that might be available. By the way, if it’s a screw top wine, do we pay a screwage rather than corkage? It seems appropriate.
I have recently run across a new website where you can check the corkage before you go out (simply go to www.gobyo.com and fill in the zip code; up pops most of the restaurants in the area and their corkage). I found out that the Farmhouse Restaurant on River Road charges $35 and Cyrus in Healdsburg is $35 to $80. I guess if you can afford to eat there, you don’t worry about a high corkage fee. It still seems a shame that the wine industry has to try to make a profit for itself and the restaurant industry.
The Wall Street Journal column ends with some great advice: “Just remember that, in good times and in bad, wine always tastes better when it’s a good deal.”
Since you don’t have to pay corkage at home, you better get to your homework. Maybe if you put a $10 corkage fee in a bucket at home for each bottle, you could afford to go to dinner more often—but be sure it’s only to a restaurant with a fair corkage gouge—oops, I mean fee.
