A sure way for the restaurant to sell more wine is to go easy on those outrageous mark ups. Unlike the price of prepared meals, most people know how much that bottle of wine costs in the liquor store.

The issue about wine in this country is the mark up. Rather than seeing wine sales as the profit margin, we need to see it as the Europeans so, as a lubricant of consumption and enjoyment.

Since I live down here and can get alcohol delivered to my home, I belong to a wine club. Four times a year I get 12 bottles of wine; the default is a red/white mix, but I've been getting all reds.
This club buys wines from small (boutique) wineries from around the world and all have been excellent. The cost is about $10-14 per bottle on average.
There are many from the USA, including a great petite syrah (Mirror Lake) from CA that I currently have uncorked.

We've touched on this in earlier entries, but its a shame MD won't allow shipments of wine via FedEx or whomever. Perhaps he could get great affordable wines this way.

I would guess that Jason Ambrose has an import license since the original entry states he buys his wines overseas. For some reason he is allowed to bypass the Maryland distributors who through their lobby contribute lots of dollars to campaigns. Does anyone know exactly how this works? It seems by skipping a entire layer of markups Salt should have some of the cheapest wine in town.

You're taking me too literally. I meant that he buys wines that aren't from the United States. I don't know if he has an import license. EL

I would definitely buy more wine at restaurants if I didn't know how much the same bottle costs across the street at Vinnie's House of Vino (or whatever).
PCB: The single least civilized characteristic about Mother Maryland is that she won't allow her subjects personal wine imports. If you lived anywhere but Fla. I'd envy you. I guess there's trade offs (trades off?) on everything. And heck, having my vin shipped to my friend's house in West VA and making the monthly run to pick it up would get me out of the house, if I did that sort of thing.

I agree about the mark up! It burns me to see a cheapo bottle of Beringer cost in a restaurant what 3 bottles cost in a liquor store (especially with a coupon!). I don't even like buying a glass because I think they're too marked up as well. It's a big thing when the bar bill costs almost as much as 2 entrees!

I wish more restaurants would do wine flights that were paired with their menus.

My wife and I usually order a few courses, and more often than not we order different things. This varied menu makes it difficult to pair a meal with a single bottle of wine. While the Bordeaux may go well with the shortribs I ordered, it doesn't really work with the scallops the she ordered.

Why not offer some wine specials? A limited selection of 1/2 price bottles or 5 bottles for $15, as examples. You can still get folks to upgrade to a bottle if they feel like they are getting a deal. The key is clearly showing you are offering some good price cuts. Should still be able to make a nice profit.

Joyce-

I heard of a place that has all you can drink wine for happy hour from 5-8pm for only $5 on Fridays and another place that has all you can drink wine all night long on Mondays for only $10.
I hope I spelled everything correctly:)

Your bar bill will cost less than two entrees, I guarantee.

jason - if you can find out the name, let me know! I'd love to check that place out!

I'm laughing about your spelling comment - I'm a horrible speller and sometimes I even open a new window (I don't have spell check) to check a words spelling. This is a group that watches for the old spelling mistakes too!

I agree with Dan D and jimbo. . . it's ridiculous that restaurants feel the need to make such a huge profit from wine - when the average consumer knows exactly how much that bottle costs (and really - restaurants probably buy it for less than the average cosumer buying a couple of bottles at a time). I am a wine lover - but absolutely have refrained from ordering a bottle simply based on outrageous mark ups. Restaurants seem to be pricing their wines right out of business... sad.

We too have stopped ordering wine with our restaurant meals. As much as we love wine, we have decided that the markup is outrageous and we can do without it. As I look around me in restaurants, I think that we are not in the minority. So sad.

Switch to Firefox: a spell checker is available (free) as an add-on. Like Word, it underlines words misspelled or that it doesn't know (ever notice what a limited vocabulary Word has?)

[Well this will teach me: three posts in a half an hour and I get the 'too many posts' message: Damn you Blogware. I'm retreating into my Basement of Aloneness; come Book we are not wanted here.]

Joyce, he's talking about No Idea and Don't Know in Federal Hill. I'd hope he would know the place...as he's the owner. Still, it sounds like a good deal depending on the wines available.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA This is sooooo funny. Do you know how many excellent restaurants have BYOB policies. Why buy wine in house when you can bring your own. Even places that have a corking fee, it is still cheaper than 2 glasses of wine from an already open bottle.

Does No Idea really have a wine happy hour from 5-8pm for only $5 on Fridays??? I had 'no idea' (EVERY pun intended!!!) I will be sure to check that out.. I've been to brunch there - it is awsome!!! Thanks for the info!

Well, call me a contrarian, but I think you get a better deal if you order the bottle than by the glass, if your party is going to have more than a single glass apiece. And if you don't finish the bottle you can now legally cork it and take it home. We were down in Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago and our restaurant even provided a very nice looking wine bag for us.

And if you don't finish the bottle you can now legally cork it and take it home.

In Maryland you can (and apparently Virginia), but not everywhere. At least as of a couple of months ago it was still not legal in DC.

Yes, Hal, my comments weren't meant to be universally applied. I didn't check out the taking the bottle home laws when we were in Virginia, but the fact that the restaurant had a supply of classy-looking wine bags suggests to me that it is legal there as well.

I wish more restaurants would do wine flights that were paired with their menus.

RoCK, I couldn't agree more! This would be a big draw for me.