Texans aren't all that interested in drinking wine in restaurants

One of the regular themes here is that restaurants do a lousy job of selling wine to their customers. And now the Wine Curmudgeon has hard evidence to go along with his whining.

The new Texas Zagat guide, released yesterday, notes that only about one-third of the state's diners order a bottle of wine with their meal. Almost half, on the other hand, order wine by the glass.

I suppose one can look at this positively -- that 85 percent of Texans who eat in restaurants order wine with their meal. But the Wine Curmudgeon didn't get where he is by being positive. And, in fact, that's looking at the numbers through rose'-colored glasses.

That's because restaurant goers who complete Zagat surveys are sophisticated diners who spend money when they go out to eat -- "frequent, knowledgeable consumers," says the guide. In other words, they aren't people whose idea of wine is a glass of white zinfandel at Applebee's or Chili's, and this is borne out by the most popular restaurants in the survey. In Houston, it was Mark's, in Dallas, Abacus, and in San Antonio, La Reve -- all places where you can spend $100 a person without any effort at all. (Vespaio, the most popular Austin restaurant, is a bit cheaper.)

So why are so many of these sophisticated diners buying wine by the glass? Because too many restaurant wine lists are overpriced and underwhelming. Who wants to pay $75 for a decent bottle of wine that costs $25 at the wine store? Or $25 for that grocery store bottle of white zinfandel?

Some progress has been made, but I still see too many lists that look like they were put together by a used car salesman in a plaid sport coat. I ate at a popular Dallas restaurant a couple of nights ago that fit that description all too well -- mostly very ordinary wine that was marked up three and four times its retail price. It may look good on a balance sheet, but charging someone $28 for a bottle of Ecco Domani pinot grigio is not going to advance the cause of wine in the restaurant business.

I lose this argument every time I make it, but I'll do it until I run out of breath: The way to sell more wine is to cut prices. You'll sell someone who drinks two glasses a bottle if you charge $50 for that $75 wine, and you'll sell two bottles of it if you cut the price by the same amount.

But how set is the restaurant business in its ways? I did a magazine story a few years ago about wine prices, and talked to a manager at a Florida resort who cut wine prices by one-third during the off-season and almost doubled sales. So what did his bosses do when the season started again? Raised prices. "It was like they didn't even notice what had happened," he said.

Technorati Tags: restaurant wine prices,Texas restaurants

Comments

[Gerald Weisl]

Most restaurateurs should really have a collection plate for donations from customers, since (apparently) they claim they have a tough time paying the bills with a mere 300% markup on wine!
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Many seem to prefer to sell a beer for $5, rather than have people order a bottle of wine (and maybe clear a $20 profit) that's sensibly-priced.
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Many wineries offer restaurants a "by the glass" price. This allows the restaurateur to jack up the price in hopes of attracting a customer. One winery here in California offered is $35 (retail bottle price) to restaurants for $120/case (of twelve bottles). This is an extreme example, but the wine business bends over backwards for dining establishments.
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Many restaurants seem to have difficulty in even printing a wine list with the name of the winery or type of wine spelled correctly (or categorized properly).
One new dining establishment is so sloppy, they have the same wine listed twice and at different prices!
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Numerous winery marketing people continue to use a sales 'model' developed in the 1970s, despite the fact that the world has changed significantly.
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The Zagat guide is used by many wineries to target prospective restaurant accounts. They all want to have their wines in the most fancy, highly-rated places. A wine broker told me one vintner demanded to have their $40 Pinot Noir in a particular, highly-rated restaurant. The broker agreed to present the wine to this restaurant, but told the winemaker "it's not likely they will be interested in your Pinot Noir since they're open only for breakfast and lunch."
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[JP]

I live in Italy so I suppose this input is not valid, but you're correct. The wine culture here is inbedded since before the Roman Empire. In restaurants, have paid less than EUR 10 and up to EUR 28 for a very good bottle of wine here. Go into any restaurant for dinner and you will find from 60% to 100% of the tables with a bottle of wine on them.

An interesting but tangent point is that a mean in Europe is usually at least 3 courses which renders wine more important to the meal. Many American meals have the entire dinner plopped onto the table at once and that makes it a bit harder to enjoy a meal and enjoying a meal more is what wine is all about, so perhaps until Americans learn how to eat correctly, wine will never rise to it's correct place in the market because it does not have the right role in a meal.