Pricing
How to price house wine (the wine that sells when nobody chooses)
House wine is the default pour. Price the glass on true cost, name it so guests need not ask, and stop treating "house" as a synonym for cheap.
Written by Marco Azzari on
This page is for restaurants, not for shoppers hunting a grocery-store "house wine." In a dining room, house wine is the pour that goes out when the guest does not want a decision. It is often your volume. It is often still sitting at a price from the year you opened.
If that sentence felt personal, cost it this week. Not the whole list. This line.
House is a job, not a quality insult
"House" should mean: we chose this for the food we cook, we can pour it without a speech, the margin works at the volume it will do. It should not mean: cheapest liquid the distributor had, nameless, slightly ashamed.
Guests who say "just the house red" are handing you the sale. If the glass is thin, warm, or mystery-red, you taught them that wine in this room is a gamble. Next time they order a beer.
Name it. A real producer name, or an honest house name the floor can say. One clause on the list. Wine-list language.
Price the glass from true cost
House volume will punish a romantic price. Use the same true-cost path as the rest of the list (price a wine list) and the glass method on by the glass.
If house is the second-cheapest bottle as well as the glass, you have stacked two volume slots on one wine. That can be right. It should be a decision. Psychology of the second-cheapest.
When to change the wine, not only the price
If true cost leaves you nothing at a price the guest will pay, the wine is wrong for the job. Do not "fix" it by shrinking the pour until the glass looks mean. Change the buying. The house pour has to survive a full Thursday, not a distributor tasting.
Small rooms without a sommelier: this is the first wine to get right, because it is the one your team will sell even on a bad night. Choosing wines without a sommelier.
About the author
Marco Azzari
Founder of Wine CFO · Wine List Engineer for restaurants
I help restaurants, hotels and bars earn more from the wine they already sell. I price lists wine by wine, cost by-the-glass programs on their real yield, rebuild selections around the food menu, and rewrite lines so guests understand what they're ordering. Every Wine Profit Checkup goes across my desk personally.
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