The Right Price
Breaking away from the standard markup in restaurants
Posted: Feb 22, 2011 12:19pm ET
A restaurant chain in London that lists the likes of Pétrus and Beaucastel has caused a bit of a stir by announcing that it has lowered the prices on hundreds (yes, hundreds) of its top-tier wines in all its 20 venues. It's only the latest attempt to put the best light on the difficult situation for those who deal in high-priced wine.
This is the new normal, since the world's economy went south. Restaurants that had already filled their cellars with high-priced Bordeaux, super Tuscans and Napa Cabernets, however, are still looking at them. Of course, those wines are not likely to go bad if they have to age for a few years. They will only become more appealing to discerning customers. But if you're a restaurateur with significant cash tied up in those wines, what better way to get out of that bind than to lower the prices and try to make friends with customers in the process?
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