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Two approaches to wine by the glass

In case you didn't know, it's Washington Wine Month for restaurants and retailers (not to be confused with Washington Wine Month in August, when the state liquor stores have blow-out prices).

Here is how two Seattle-area restaurants are featuring Washington wines. Take this however you want.

-- icon Grill in Seattle and Zephyr Grill in Kent are offering three different wines in three-ounce pours for $10-$18. And all Washington wines by the bottle are half off. This puts the wines at pretty close to retail prices at a restaurant.

-- 0/8 Seafood Grill and Twisted Cork Wine Bar in Bellevue is offering some higher-end Washington wines by the glass. For example, you can order a glass of Spring Valley Vineyard's Uriah for $28 per glass. This wine from Ste. Michelle Wine Estates retails for $50 per bottle, so five pours will bring in $140, a nearly 300% markup.

By aperdue at Mar 8 2008 - 6:58am | restaurants | Washington | aperdue's blog | 801 reads

Quartino system

Visconti's Italian restaurant (Leavenworth and Wenatchee) uses this pouring system on their glass pours. It works well for the reasons mentioned by sincpa. On the restaurant side of things, it keeps amounts consistent.

By malbec at Mon, 03/17/2008 - 3:49pm | login or register to post comments

Do like Mario

Mario Batali, the famous chef has an interesting take on wine by the glass at his New York restaurant.

"One of the signature features of the Babbo wine program is the quartino, a new (and now widely imitated) approach to “by-the-glass” wine service. A quartino is a small decanter that holds a quarter of a liter. That translates to one-third of a 750 ml bottle, or about a glass-and-a-half. Part of the fun of drinking wine is swirling it around in the glass, smelling it, sipping and savoring it slowly. You can’t do that if the glass is filled up practically to the rim. The quartino puts the control in your hands. It is not unusual for us to open older vintages of Barolo or high-end “super-Tuscans” and serve them by the quartino".

His quartino prices range from a $9 Rosato to a $25 Barolo.

You see this a little in BC. I like this method a lot and I'd like to see more of it.

By sincpa at Fri, 03/14/2008 - 8:30pm | login or register to post comments

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