Understanding How Wine is Sold in Restaurants

1 of 9 in Series: The Essentials of Pairing Wine with Food

When you buy a bottle (or glass) of wine in a restaurant, you get to taste it then and there: instant gratification. Choose a wine that pairs well with the food you’ve selected for the best experience. Be sure to ask questions if you're not sure which wine to select.

Wines available for sale in a restaurant generally fall into four categories:

The house wines, usually one white and one red, and sometimes also a sparkling wine. These can be purchased by the glass or in a carafe (a wide-mouthed, handle-less pitcher). They are the wines you get when you simply ask for a glass of white or a glass of red.
Premium wines, available by the glass. These offer a wider selection than the house wines and are generally better quality. (These wines are usually available also by the bottle.)
Wines available by the bottle from the restaurant’s regular, or standard, wine list.
Older or rarer wines available by the bottle from a special wine list, sometimes called a reserve wine list (not every restaurant has such a list).

House wines by the glass

Usually, a restaurant’s house wines are inferior stuff that the restaurant owner is making an enormous profit on. House wines can range in price from $4 up to $10 a glass (with an average of $6 to $8). Often, the entire bottle costs the proprietor the price of one glass or less!

Under most circumstances, avoid the house wine. For the same reasons, avoid asking for “a glass of Chardonnay” or “a glass of Merlot.” If the house wine is your only option, ask the server what it is. Don’t be satisfied with the response, “It’s Chardonnay”; ask for specifics. Chardonnay from where? What brand? Ask to see the bottle.

Premium pour wines

Ordering premium wines by the glass is a fine idea, especially if you want to have only a glass or two or if you and your guests want to experiment by trying several wines. Premium wines usually range from $9 to $14 per glass.

A restaurant may offer just one premium white and one red, or it may offer several choices. These premium wines are identified for you somehow — on the wine list, on a separate card, verbally, or sometimes even by a display of bottles. In some informal restaurants, wines by the glass are listed on a chalkboard.

If two or three of you are ordering the same wine by the glass, ask how many ounces are poured into each glass (usually five to eight ounces) and compare the price with that of a 25.4-ounce (750 ml) bottle of the same wine. (You usually do have the option of buying an entire bottle.) Sometimes, for the cost of only three glasses you can have the whole bottle.

The standard wine list

Most of the time, you’ll probably end up turning to the restaurant’s standard wine list to choose your wine. The standard wine list distinguishes a restaurant’s basic wine list from its special, or reserve, wine list. Unfortunately, there’s nothing standard about wine lists at all. They come in all sizes, shapes, degrees of detail, degrees of accuracy, and degrees of user-friendliness.

Special, or reserve, wine lists

Some restaurants offer a special wine list of rare wines to supplement their standard wine list. These special lists appeal to two types of customers: very serious wine connoisseurs and “high rollers.” If you’re not in either category, don’t even bother asking whether the restaurant has such a list. Then again, if you’re not paying for the meal or if you seriously want to impress a client or a date, you may want to look at it! Try to get help with the list from some knowledgeable person on the restaurant staff, though: Any mistake you make can be a costly one.