There was a review on www.decanter.com last week of the new Galvin brothers restaurant, "La Chapelle", in Spitalfields. Not suprisingly, it lists Jaboulet's Hermitage la Chapelle on the wine list. They apparently offer the rather mediocre 1994 vintage at a staggering £360 per bottle (plus service charge). This is a wine that is available retail at about £40.
In the new edition of Decanter Magazine (January 2010) there is a very pertinent quote from PR guru Roland Rudd in the "My passion for wine" section. This is a man who can afford a decent bottle of wine, yet, he says "I rarely drink good claret in a restaurant, purely because it irritates me how much they charge".
The main restaurant at Bob Bob Ricard
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If you are reading this blog then you are almost certainly seriously into fine wine and probably a regular restaurant visitor. I get the impression that most Farr Vintners customers drink their great bottles at home and "drink down" when they go out to eat because of the outrageous mark-ups in so many restaurants. In London there are countless examples of rip-off wine lists. I recently visited a restaurant in Croydon where Rauzan Segla's second wine "Segla" 2004 was on the list at £72 + 12.5% service = £81. This is a wine that we sell at £185 per dozen in bond (£20 per bottle inc duty and VAT). Jean-Marie Guffens told me that he was staggered to visit a London restaurant recently where the service charge alone on a bottle of his Verget Saint Veran was higher than the price at which he sells it. At Racine in Knightsbridge I recently saw Chateau Kirwan 2004 (a £20 bottle of wine) on the list at £120.
Many restaurants in London now seem to list their wines at around 4 or 5 times the cost price. It seems just about acceptable to me when a £5 Corbieres is sold at £25 as the restaurant has fixed costs that it needs to cover. But £20 bottles priced at over £100 result in nobody ordering the wine. The restaurants then complain that they need the big mark-ups because the wines don't sell very well. It's a classic "Catch 22 situation". The answer is, of course, that if restaurants worked on a standard mark-up - say £25 per bottle - customers would trade up and buy better wine. The restaurants would make more money than they do on the Corbieres and customers would be happy and more likely to return.
Princess Victoria's first floor function room
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The world's leading wine critic, Robert Parker, added his voice to the debate last week when he was quoted in "Harpers Wine and Spirit Trades Review" as saying "I think it is appalling to charge 300% on wine, it's like being mugged in the high street. It does nothing but promote an image of elitism."
There are a few restaurants in London who don't rip off their customers and they deserve to attract wine lovers through their doors. For example, Bob Bob Ricard list Meursault Charmes 1999 Lafon at £175. The same wine is on the list at The Greenhouse at £503! Cheval Blanc 1995 costs £200 per bottle wholesale ex tax from Farr Vintners but a very modest £276 inc VAT at Bob Bob Ricard. Or, if you prefer to walk down the road a few hundred hundred yards, you can blow £1050 on the same wine at Claridges. Other good deals can be found at Ransomes Dock, Chez Bruce, Tate Britain, Princess Victoria and The Square. At the latter you can drink Lafite 1982 including service and VAT at less than half the current market price!
Some of the best fine wine deals can be found in France's classic Michelin starred restaurants who are prepared to buy wine when young and sell it when mature - they also often have direct allocations from growers of some of the world's hottest wines - particularly from Burgundy and the Rhône Valley. I have already written about the amazing wine list at Beaugravière in Southern France but some of the greatest bargains I've seen recently were at El Celler de Can Roca in North East Spain. Not only an incredibly well priced and carefully chosen wine list, but it's also ranked #5 in the world's 100 best restaurants.
El Celler de Can Roca in North East Spain
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I know that some people like to keep good deals a secret but if anyone reading this blog would like to nominate particular restaurant bargains (or highlight spectacular rip-offs) please e-mail us at sales@farrvintners.com and we will update this blog with your reports on the best and the worst restaurant wine prices. Those restaurateurs who encourage fine wine drinking by modest pricing deserve the support of wine lovers and those who don't deserve a visit from AA Gill and an order for a jug of tap water.
Following this blog, David Stuart kindly tipped us off that 1998 Cheval Blanc is available at £330 per bottle at The Pheasant Inn, Bassenthwaite, Cumbria (near Keswick). That's cheaper than wholesale, and a real bargain.
