Wine Markup Price Calculator

What about sales tax?

It stays out of the math. US menu prices are listed before sales tax, so cost × multiplier is the menu price: ×3 on a $20 wine gives $60 on the list. Sales tax is added on top at checkout and passed on to your state and city, so it never touches your margin. Rates vary by state and city; check yours.

Which is the correct multiplier?

It depends on the bottle. There is no single right number for a whole list: a ×3 that works on a $12 wine turns a $60 bottle into a $180 price most guests will skip. Rules of thumb like 3× wholesale per bottle, or one glass covering the wholesale cost of the bottle, are a starting point, not a pricing policy.

Regressive multipliers

With a regressive multiplier, the multiplier goes down as the wholesale cost goes up: for example ×3.5 on entry wines, ×2.5 in the middle and ×2 on premium bottles. Guests trade up more easily, and every premium bottle still earns more dollars than an entry wine.

What is a nice number?

A nice number is the calculated price rounded, usually to a whole dollar: $47.35 becomes $47. From $100 up it is rounded to the tens, so $134.20 becomes $130 and the price looks less scary on the list. The effective multiplier shows what that rounding really does to your markup.

Read more on markup vs margin, check single bottles with the Wine Bottle Margin Analyzer, or estimate what a flat markup costs you with the Wine Profit Leak calculator.