Robert Parker Says Stop Eating at Restaurants with Unfairly High Wine Prices
Don't like overpaying for wine when you eat out? Wine critic Robert Parker has an idea: boycott the restaurants. "The consumer should rebel and avoid exorbitant wine prices, no matter how sublime the cuisine. This is nothing more or less than a legitimized mugging."
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4 Comments:
Every now and then I actually agree with Parker, wow! But while this is certainly a good approach, a better approach would be to A) Tell others so they can do the same and B) Tell the restaurant. Word of mouth is an extremely powerful tool that is often overlooked. 5 people (or 50) boycotting are better than 1, not to mention that if the restaurant fears it is losing a good deal of business because of its wine mark-ups, perhaps it will reconsider its pricing scale.
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vinovamp at 11:20AM on 09/30/08
Robert Parker is one of the causes of exorbitant wine prices. Somehow, coming from him, this seems a bit strange.
I do agree that if you think a restaurant is charging too much across the board, you should let them know. But realize that at high end restaurants, the service you get is paid for, more likely than not, by the profit of liquor and wine sales.
I'll splurge occasionally on a fine wine at at restaurant, but fortunately where I live there are plenty of BYOBs to choose from.
derosa at 12:25PM on 09/30/08
Well if we're going as far to ban restaurants that overcharge on wine, can we add bars and clubs that overcharge on drinks. In fact, we should draft a letter on how much we want to pay for drinks and nail them to the door of every restaurant, bar, and club. We can call it the Great Alcohol Reformation and start the Parkeran Church.
Wait, I think I went too far with this.
variaas at 5:38PM on 09/30/08
This seems all well and good but then how much is too much? On the same note are customers willing to pay a bit more for their food if you're going to take away that profit from the wine.
Don't get me wrong, $400+(to me) seems a bit overboard; hell even $40 dollars for a bottle of wine seems steep for me right now (college student) but working at a restaurant made me realize that food sometimes doesn't always turn the biggest profit. They need to have that large tag wine to occasionally sells along with all the mediocre stuff to help keep the lights on.
bobfole at 12:16AM on 10/01/08