How does wine and champagne get expensive? When the same exact brands can be bought for a cheaper price.?

Question

I was at a restaurant and the most expensive bottle of wine they had cost $20,000. And I saw the exact brand at Walmart for only $9.00.

Answer 1

Most of the time you are paying for:

How long it was aged
Type of Grapes
Season
How Rare it is

Answer 2

Explain, please.

There are many laws governing the sales of alcohol. One of the strange ways things work is that it's usually cheaper to buy wine from a market than from the winery, even though there's no distribution costs. Non-compete clauses are a reason for this.




"I was at a restaurant and the most expensive bottle of wine they had cost $20,000. And I saw the exact brand at Walmart for only $9.00."

Must have been a typo. Typically, markup at a restaurant is about 300%, so a $9 bottle would be about $27.

Answer 3

Honestly it is supply and demand as somebody else mentioned. history also plays a part in that as well as what the market will bear.

I seriously doubt that you saw a 20,000 dollar bottle of wine at Walmart for that price.

There is usually a 40 - 55% mark-up on wines in restaurants compared to buying at a store. I bought a bottle of raymond generations at the winery for $95. It was $165 at a restaurant in Indianpolis. No logical reason for it beyond the important costs and corkage fee that I am aware of.

Answer 4

Do you mean why is one brand more expensive than another? Like, why is Robert Mondavi wine more expensive than, say, TwoBuckChuck? It has to do with how they were made, whether they were in real oak barrels or processed barrels, or steel barrels with oak chips, how long they were fermented and aged, etc. You can taste the difference. Especially with a wine like Chardonnay. The cheaper ones are more "rough" where the more expensive ones have a clean, smooth finish.

If you are buying the exact same brands and wines (Mondavi Chardonnay, ie) for two different prices if it's two different stores there's your answer. If it's the same store, check the year. Wine gets better with age, whereas champagne needs to be consumed "young." Or some bottles are "Private Reserve" or something like that which signifies a more select grape-picking process.

Answer 5

You probably won't find an actual Champagne (From France) for less than $30.00. I would recommend some excellent sparkling wines, That are pretty much the same as Champagne. The previous answer that mentions Chandon, you can find a really good bottle of Chandon, like Blanc de noirs for around $20.00. My favorite bottle of Sparkling wine, is called Pink. It is made by Yellow Glen. It is made in Australia, and usually retails for $10.00. Everyone I have ever suggested it to has been extremely happy. Gloria Ferrer has some really great sparkling wines, and run around $20.00 also. Mumm Napa runs around $15. I really would Choose Pink as my top choice. Let me know what you think. Cheap enough you can buy a bottle just to try before you serve it to other people. There is also one called Yellow, by Yellow Glen, but I prefer the Pink. It comes in a Black bottle with Hot Pink writing.

Answer 6

Wine markups in a restaurant, although they seem ambiguous, are due to a variety of factors.

For one thing, restaurants make about 75% of their profit off of alcohol sales. Another reason is that restaurants don't always have the luxury of space to store the wine, so they need to account for a storage space where they store it. In addition a restaurant must buy the wine from a wholesaler, who in turn, buys it from a winery or importer. So there is a markup all along the way, from the producer to the end consumer. In addition you are paying for the "usage" fee of the restaurant's wine glasses as well as the manpower (dishwasher!) it costs to clean them and properly store them. Think about how many glasses or dishes are broken at a restaurant as usual course of business- this is all built into the cost of ordering the bottle of wine.

On the contrary, when you buy a wine at the winery or wine shop, they are not providing you with glasses or a decanter if you need it or a salaried sommelier to help you choose it or discuss whether it will go with the meal their chef is preparing for you, etc. Wine shops can charge less because their business is basically cash and carry. Restaurants have more variables to account for.

A good analogy- when you pick up restaurant takeout you might leave the deliveryperson or server a few dollars tip, but you do not tip as much as you would have if you would have dined at the restaurant. Yes it is the same food but you are taking it home to enjoy with your own dishes, dishwasher, table, chairs, etc. You pay more when you eat at a restaurant because of the service involved.

Many good restaurants have a knowledgeable sommelier who can tell you what the bargains are on his/her list. A lot of sommeliers and wine directors nowadays try and build a list with less of a markup by offering wines from lesser-known regions, but are very good values, or very good with the specific cuisine of their restaurant. Not all restaurants have a practice of marking the wine up the "average" (this is a broad answer since a lot of restaurants and wine programs nowadays have started cutting their markups in order to please consumers, build goodwill, and generally, encourage people to try and order more wine) 3-5X its cost. It also has to do with how rare the wine is, if they had to pay any other fees to get it (bought it at an auction, shipped it from Italy, etc).

That said, there is no wine in the world that would sell for $9 at Walmart and be marked up to $20,000 at a restaurant so I think that must have been a typo!

Answer 7

I recall a survey where the average person couldn't tell the difference between $2/bottle wine and really expensive wine. But a real connoisseur prob can tell the difference.

Answer 8

The size and age of the batch affects the price.

Answer 9

supply and demand

the store supplies the booze, and they demand as much as they can get for it