It’s a reasonably well known fact that restaurants mark-up wine. And their mark up will vary considerably, but will usually be at least 200% if not more like 300%. Some even go beyond this – sometimes as far as 450%.

We all know the arguments (staff, glassware, investment in a cellar, etc.). However, have you ever wondered why you can rarely find your favourite supermarket wine on the wine list of your local restaurant?  Well maybe you can, you just don’t realise it. Read on to find out more…

Let’s take the example of a mythical wine – we’ll call it “Jacob’s Landing Red”. It’s all over the big supermarkets, often on offer for £4.99 and sells like hot cakes. Everybody loves it.  Not a single restaurant in the country will stock it however. The main argument against it being that when we put it on our list, customer’s complain that we’re charging £25 for it, when they can buy it in the local Tesbury’s supermarket for 5 quid.

Enter the enterprising importer of “Jacob’s Landing”. She can sell at a higher price to restaurants than supermarkets and hence make more profit. But how does she persuade the wholesalers and restaurants to take it?

Simple, the label gets changed to “Oxford Creek Cabernet/ Shiraz”. The same wine in the same bottle but won’t get sold to supermarkets in that label. She can now market it to the on-trade safe in the knowledge that it won’t be found in the supermarkets and the restaurants can continue to mark up the wine it sells without any transparency in the pricing.

Caveat Emptor as they say.

So, the next time you enjoy a wine in a restaurant and then can’t find it on the shelves of the local Asdco, take a long hard look at the label.

As a footnote, this practice rarely happens with more expensive wines especially where the brand is the selling point (Bordeaux Châetaux for example).  A number of enlightened restaurateurs  put a cash mark up on wines, especially at the higher end.  This both encourages customers to trade-up but also offers great value. Well done you!