Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Buying wine in a restaurant

Buying wine in a restaurant can be both an uplifting and a dispiriting experience. Uplifting because you are very likely to come across wonderful wines you just won’t find anywhere else, wines chosen specifically to suit the style and food of the chef, with a highly trained sommelier on hand to proffer genuine and useful advice.

Dispiriting because the savage mark ups charged by all too many greedy restaurateurs these days can put all but the most basic of wines out of our reach.

The usual formula is for the restaurant to multiply a wine’s original trade price by anything from between three to five, and the results can be eye-wateringly pricey and in many cases indefensible.

The restaurateur’s response is invariably that such mark ups help go towards the rent, the rates, the linen tablecloths, the fancy glasses, staff wages and so on, essential in these straightened times. Hmmm.

Sometimes you just feel ripped off. I recently visited a very well-known, Michelin-starred restaurant in London which prides itself on its wine list. The prices were exorbitant, but the selection fascinating. I discovered on ordering however that my first three choices from the list were ‘no longer available’. It fleetingly crossed my mind, rather uncharitably, that they never really had been available and were just listed to impress.

It just so happened I’d been at a tasting that afternoon and had a really rather interesting bottle with me and I asked whether I might drink it in exchange for a modest corkage charge. Of course, they said, and promptly charged me an outrageous £35 for the privilege. It rather put me off them.

On the other hand, the experience can be a delight. Dining at the wonderful Bellamy’s in London’s Bruton Place the other day, I was gently guided by Luigi, the Maitre d’, to a spectacular Crozes-Hermitage Blanc from Alain Graillot that matched my sautéed skate wing so perfectly that I couldn’t stop smiling all evening.

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