During my latest trip to piedmont , my wife and I went on our second evening in Alba, to a very nice restaurant (I think the name was Del Arco but I'm not sure). With the menu we got the wine menu. Looking at the wine menu , one of the wines captured my eyes. It was Barolo Per-Cristina 2000 from Clerico, a wine that earned a 100 score from wine spectator and was very hard to find. the price was about 70 Euros, the release price of the wine (which of course went up dramatically after the WS published its 100 points score). Unfortunately , it was the end of a long day that included visits in 3 great wineries: Sandrone, Scavino & Altare. I couldn't drink anymore and so was wife, and the owner of the restaurant refused to sell it. We planned to go back some other day but it didn't work out.
The reason I mentioned this story is because almost every time I go to Israeli restaurants and ask for the wine menu, I get mad. I love wine (as you can see) and I love good food (as my belly tells) but having them both in Israeli restaurants is a bit expensive and very frustrating. the prices of wines in most of the Israeli wines are about twice their price in the shops or even more. Now, since I guess , most wine shops doesn't really lose money when they sell wines, probably they even take some profit, at least 20-30% of the price , then asking for twice that price is kind of a robbery. Since the wines that interest me, cost in the wine shops at least 200-240NIS (50-60$) then paying twice the price is a bit high. Now you can say - you can bring your own wine and pay corkage fee, but not always I come to a restaurant directly from my home. Sometimes I go there from work or after a trip, and even if I go there directly from home, the Israeli roads (and my style of driving) doesn't do good for the wine. Many times , wines I brought from home tasted less than optimally. I would really prefer to pay a reasonable price and buy the wine in the restaurant, than bringing it with me.
Besides the public that suffers from this pricing policy, I think the wine industry and shops also suffers, because most people would either ask for a cheap wine that won't give them any pleasure and reason to become wine lovers or ask for mineral water or soft drink (and believe me, I prefer them to a bad wine). If people could enjoy good wines at fair prices in the restaurants , they would later on, come to the wine shop and buy more.
I think that wine producers and importers should try to put some pressure on restaurants , so they will lower their prices to resonable ones.
The reason I mentioned this story is because almost every time I go to Israeli restaurants and ask for the wine menu, I get mad. I love wine (as you can see) and I love good food (as my belly tells) but having them both in Israeli restaurants is a bit expensive and very frustrating. the prices of wines in most of the Israeli wines are about twice their price in the shops or even more. Now, since I guess , most wine shops doesn't really lose money when they sell wines, probably they even take some profit, at least 20-30% of the price , then asking for twice that price is kind of a robbery. Since the wines that interest me, cost in the wine shops at least 200-240NIS (50-60$) then paying twice the price is a bit high. Now you can say - you can bring your own wine and pay corkage fee, but not always I come to a restaurant directly from my home. Sometimes I go there from work or after a trip, and even if I go there directly from home, the Israeli roads (and my style of driving) doesn't do good for the wine. Many times , wines I brought from home tasted less than optimally. I would really prefer to pay a reasonable price and buy the wine in the restaurant, than bringing it with me.
Besides the public that suffers from this pricing policy, I think the wine industry and shops also suffers, because most people would either ask for a cheap wine that won't give them any pleasure and reason to become wine lovers or ask for mineral water or soft drink (and believe me, I prefer them to a bad wine). If people could enjoy good wines at fair prices in the restaurants , they would later on, come to the wine shop and buy more.
I think that wine producers and importers should try to put some pressure on restaurants , so they will lower their prices to resonable ones.
6 comments:
Point well made and familiar (although I don't dine out frequently).
Generally I agree about the problem, but as a consumer the solution is very simple in my point of view - Corkage fee.
At (any) given budget - you get twice the quality (if not more) if you bring your own. I'll give a simple example - last time I dinned out I brought with be a bottle of Amphorae's Rython, for which I paid about 100NIS including 25NIS corkage. For that price at an average restaurant you'd marginally get Red Mt. Hermon.
As you climb higher in quality and price - it can even get worse. Pay let's say 300NIS for a bottle at a restaurant and you'd get a wine that goes for 150-200 retail (100-150 is what the restraunt pays). For the same ammount you'd get a 280NIS wine if you BYO.
One might accuse me of being cheap, but I disagree. I think paying the outragoues prices in some (most?) restaurants is not being a good consumer. I do understand the fact that when you eat and drink outside you pay for much more than the food - but this is no excuse for the 2-3 multiplicity factor of prices in many restaurants. Where the wine is reasonnably priced I'd prefer to buy it in the restaurant, to encourage competitors to promote wine culture as well - part of which is reasonnable pricing, in my opinion.
Well said.
think of less affluent people, young students, couples etc.
they can not dine and wine with those prices.
i often find myself drinking mediocre wines since i can not afford the ones i drink at home...
Hi Lior..
Thanks for your comment. So far ,if I wanted to drink wine in a restaurant I brought my wine and payed corkage fee, but what I tried to say is that sometimes you don't go to a restaurant directly from home and can't bring a wine with you, and sometimes when you bring your wine from home, it shakes during the way from your house to the restaurent and doesn't gives you its best.
Tonight I dinned at a restaurant rather far from the high end in terms of food prices (although very nice and unpretenteous food).
The wine list was quite nice, based mostly on Israeli wines at a price of about 1.5 times of store prices. This allows you to enjoy rather nice wines for 120NIS and bellow (Amphorae, Viktin and others). It's possible that's not the style and range you seek, but I found the prices very reasonnable.
In addition the wine was properly stored, the open bottles were vacuumed, wine by glass was fresh and the big glasses were of quality. More details in my most recent post (click my name).
The solution is the bring a botle from home and pay the corckage fee.
This is how we can educate the restaurants.
Post a Comment