Paying Less Green for a Bottle of Red

Some restaurants may wonder why the going is a little rough so early in this recession. Suddenly, consumers seem tired of shelling out $75 for two orders of salad, two plates of pasta and wine.

Often, the problem is the wine. With restaurant wine prices running three times wholesale, a simple bottle of red can add $30 or more to the bill. In times of austerity, that sort of pricing means it’s hard to have a casual, midweek dinner out very often.

Bistro-style restaurants should consider an approach used by Vintage, an attractive Ventura Boulevard cafe that offers wines at reasonable prices: just a few dollars over retail. Jim Reed, one of the owners and the man responsible for the wine list, says he prices everything just under twice the wholesale rate.

There are so many good buys on this 90-wine list that I’m reluctant to mention a few examples lest I slight the others. But it’s wonderful to see Maison Deutz Brut at $19, 1988 Grgich-Hills Chardonnay at $28, 1989 Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc at $15, 1982 Beringer Knight’s Valley Cabernet Sauvignon at $22 and 1987 Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon at $22. Also, more than two dozen wines are available by the glass, ranging in price from $3.50 to $5.50, and servings are good-sized in large, swirlable glasses.

“I think a lot of restaurateurs are pricing their wines to discourage people from buying wine,” says Reed. “They get greedy. They mark up wine three times wholesale and try to make their money back faster. We’d much rather get a reasonable profit and possibly sell an extra bottle here and there.”

Most of the wines on the list are also sold to take out. The off-sale price is $5 a bottle less than you’d pay to drink the wine in the restaurant. You can also bring your own wine to drink at Vintage (as long as it’s not one on the wine list) and pay a $5 corkage charge.

Reed says his retail wine sales have not been as good as he had hoped when the restaurant opened last May, partly because his retail price for currently available wines is slightly higher than the suggested retail price. However, he has items here that are not available elsewhere, and their prices are fairly low--such as the 1985 Flora Springs Cabernet at $16.

If there is a drawback to this list, it’s that Reed offers a lot of “boilerplate” wines that you can find at many places around town. However, soon he intends to add a Pinot Meunier from Eyrie in Oregon and is looking for a few more unusual items. “But,” he says, “we don’t want to get too esoteric.”

The import list is also quite small. However, it has good value, such as 1987 Prince De Merode Ladoix at $22.

The other owners of Vintage are chef Andre Thelemaque, Bob Maghame and Sia Amiri.