American Cuisine with a European flair Reservations: (561) 744-5054 | Make a Reservation Online | Lunch at the swish sushi joint Sake no Hana in London's St James's Street has left me feeling rather grumpy. Our food ordered, I examine the list of some 20 or so champagnes and 50 still wines, and find my mouth watering simply at the sight of it. Having spotted it on the back bar, my date and I fancy a glass of the scrumptious Bollinger Rosé. We are told, though, that it's by the bottle only. Indeed, only two fizzes are available by the glass and only a paltry six out of the 50 wines. Little wonder, then, that most of the couples and the hedge-funders around us are drinking beer, sake or water. I mean, who, during a working day, is going to split a bottle of champagne between two with wine to follow? We have a modest 125ml glass of Moët and one of Alsace riesling and leave it at that. We depart well-fed but out of sorts. For supper I head to my favourite gastropub, the Chimney House in Brighton, as guest of my old friend Chris Orr, managing director of Quintessentially Wine.

It boasts a short but extremely appealing list of just 23 wines, 22 of which are available by the glass, in either 175ml or 250ml measures. This is somewhere that wants you to enjoy yourself and I feel in a good mood already. "The thing about a place like this is that it gives you what most restaurants singularly fail to do, which is the chance to try before you buy, or at least try a little before you buy a lot," Chris says. "Wine is about discovering new tastes, flavours and styles. You can't do that if you're forced to buy full bottle after full bottle. And what if everyone is eating something different? I feel spoilt for choice here and, frankly, will probably spend more money because of it." At Chris's urging we don't hold back. We start with a couple of glasses each of refreshing Prosecco. Chris then goes for a small glass of South African chenin blanc and I have a small Kiwi sauvignon. He follows up with a large organic rioja and I have a similarly sized Argentinian malbec. Our paths converge again over a large glass each of Tasmanian pinot noir and we end with sweet Italian muscat alongside our pudding.

We've matched our dishes perfectly, we've enjoyed several different tastes and styles and, most importantly, we haven't had to go through that tiresome what-would-you-like-no-you-choose rigmarole. As Chris points out, despite their modest prices, the Chimney House hasn't done badly out of us either. We depart happy, not to say noisily merry. I've always had a bee in my bonnet about wines by the glass and can't understand why more restaurants don't offer them. They are punter-friendly, they are credit crunch-friendly and, since they can charge a bit more pro rata, they are owner-friendly too. "Absolutely," says Thor Gudmundsson, co-founder of the Kensington Wine Rooms which opened in London in April. "We want customers to be able to try something new without having to spend a fortune on something they won't like. Of over 120 wines, we have 40 available by the glass in 125ml and 175ml sizes thanks to five Enomatic fridges which keep them fresh under a layer of food-grade nitrogen or argon.

We also have a dozen or so champagnes and sweet wines." Prices start at a cheerful £3.70 for a 125ml glass of Cedar Grove chenin blanc from South Africa and go up to £72 for a 175ml glass of 1992 Château Haut Brion. Needless to say the latter is way, way beyond my price range, but I'm tempted by the 2007 Ata Rangi pinot noir from New Zealand at £16 a glass or the 2004 Joseph Roty Gevrey Chambertin at £18.50, not least because I know I can't afford a whole bottle of either at £63.95 and £73.95 respectively. wine and beer specials"At around £1,000 per bottle position, these Enomatics are a hefty investment," Thor admits. red wine guide uk"But the fact we have them brings people through the door and makes it worthwhile." top wines 2015 australia

Of course, not every establishment can afford such things and nor do they need to. Over in Mayfair at Rocket, the discreet little pizza restaurant and champagne bar with famously low mark-ups, they have such a quick turnover by the glass that they barely need to reseal the bottles. "I charge a quarter of the bottle price for a 175ml glass and they fly out the door," says owner Duncan Watts. best way to store wine in an apartment"And I believe that £6.25 for a glass of Cloudy Bay, or £25 a bottle, is pretty good value. buy french wine mapSo do my many customers, which means I can continue to charge so little." wine of fire usaAnd there is nothing more hospitable. where to buy dream wine

After all, when a guest arrives at your home you make them feel welcome just by saying: "Can I get you a glass of wine?" WINE BY THE GLASS: WHERE TO FIND IT The Chimney House, Brighton (01273 556708). They love their wine here and they love their customers too. The Kensington Wine Rooms, London W8 (020 7727 8142). best place to buy wine francePay-as-you-go dispensers offer everything from cheap-as-chips Chenin to cru classé.best wine years new zealand Hotel du Vin, across the country (01962 850676). The name says it all, the leaders in wine by the glass. The Forge Bar, London WC2 (020 7379 1432). Opening this week, The Forge offers 500 wines with 40 by the glass. Rocket, London W1 (020 7629 2889). Unlikely but true: just off Bond St and serving Meursault for £7.50 a glass.As more restaurants serve very expensive wines by the glass, F&W's Ray Isle considers the upside.

Not long ago I was with my wife at a restaurant that had a $190 glass of wine on its list. My wife, who is also known as the voice of reason, observed that this was—if I can get her words right—"just ridiculous." I pointed out that the wine in question, a 2004 Château Rayas Châteauneuf-du-Pape, was one of the great wines of the world. She replied that she didn't care if it was made by magical elves—paying $190 for a glass of wine was still ridiculous. Yet in the past few years, more and more restaurants have started offering surprisingly expensive wines by the glass. I'm not going to say my wife was wrong—in fact, one of the fundamental rules of journalism is, Don't say in print that your wife is wrong—because I feel that the vast majority of people would agree with her: $190 seems like a crazy amount to pay for a glass of wine. But at the same time, more and more people are buying, spending anywhere from $25 to $400 a pop. Michael Ploetz created the by-the-glass program at The Peninsula Beverly Hills' restaurant The Belvedere.

He recalls, "Immediately, we began selling a lot of high-end Chardonnay, like $40 to $50 a glass—Paul Hobbs, Peter Michael, that sort of thing. And not really to wine-geeky people; more our regular customers." Ploetz's regular customers do live in Beverly Hills, which isn't the lowest-rent district around, but he doesn't feel that the casual profligacy of the .01 percent caused the shift. "I really think that what people are after is the experience. It's like, 'I know Chave is a great Hermitage producer, and I've never had the wine—for $83, let's give it a go." I have to admit, I felt the same tug with that $190 glass of Château Rayas, a wine I rarely, if ever, get to drink. Paolo Meregalli, owner and wine director of New York City's Mulino a Vino wine bar, calculates that almost 
40 percent of his customers are buying wines that are $25 to $50 a glass—Brunellos, Barolos, Amarones. "We have some customers who will come in and have a glass of 1998 Sassicaia with a plate of pasta Bolognese.

A couple here on 
a date shared a glass the other night." A glass of '98 Sassicaia is $145 on Meregalli's list; the pasta Bolognese, $18. Pouring a single glass of a pricey wine is now financially practical for restaurants thanks to a device called 
the Coravin, launched three years ago. Created by a medical device inventor named Greg Lambrecht, the Coravin uses technology inspired by tools developed for biopsies. It drives a thin, Teflon-coated needle through the cork 
in the bottle; then it pumps in argon, a neutral gas that doesn't affect the flavor of wine (as opposed to oxygen, which will). The increased pressure pushes the wine out through the same needle. The result is that a sommelier can extract a glass of an incredibly sought-after wine from a bottle without ever removing the cork or damaging the remaining wine. Over 700 restaurants in the US use the device at this point, and more are adopting it. That said, there's also a small Luddite faction of sommeliers who remain steadfastly anti-Coravin, but I've tested the thing over multiple blind tastings, and as far as I've seen, it works exactly as advertised.

Still, the fact that you can pour a $400 glass of wine without problems doesn't necessarily mean that people will buy a $400 glass of wine. Yet, despite what may seem to be the demands of common sense, people do. That, to me, is where this shift becomes truly interesting. To get a handle on this development, I spoke to Z. John Zhang, the Murrel J. Ades professor of marketing at the Wharton School. As Zhang said, "It's about making the product divisible. The classic example is the Encyclopaedia Britannica. If you bought the whole set at once, it was, like, $1,500. So marketers came up with the idea of allowing you to buy one book per month. You think, Well, I can afford $50 a month, no problem. Even though you end up paying the same amount in the end, or more. Time-sharing with vacation houses works the same way." In other words, if you want that beach view in Boca Raton badly enough but can't afford the whole house, you'll settle for one week a year. Similarly, if you want to try Domaine de la Romanée-Conti but don't relish paying for a whole bottle, a glass might do the trick.

The Belvedere offers a six-ounce glass (a fourth of a bottle, essentially) of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti's 2005 Romanée-St-Vivant for $406. The cost of a full bottle there is exactly 
four times as much. At most restaurants, customers generally pay proportionally more when buying wine by the glass than by the bottle, but Ploetz opted not to follow that rule. "I tried to price the high-end glasses at an advantage to the customer," he told me. "So, weirdly enough, that glass of Romanée-Conti's actually a great value." A $406 glass of wine is still a rarity almost everywhere; most high-end pours are anywhere from $25 to $50. While that's not exactly cheap, it does offer people the chance to taste wines they might never have the opportunity to buy. At The Village Pub in Woodside, California, a glass of the Aubert Ritchie Vineyard Chardonnay costs $44. Pricey, sure, but the wine is one of California's most prized Chardonnays, and there's a multiyear wait to get on the winery's mailing list.

This approach also attracts customers who want to try several high-end wines during a meal, as Thomas Pastuszak of New York City's NoMad restaurant notes. The NoMad is where my wife and I saw that $190 glass of Château Rayas on the list. I admit I thought about 
going back later to try it. I mean, it was Château Rayas. How often do I get to drink Château Rayas? And I'm a wine writer! Surely a glass of Rayas would be a more worthwhile experience than, say, a new pair of shoes? But as my wife pointed out, shoes are a necessity—even very, very expensive shoes. Imagine, she added, if one person were to purchase an expensive glass of wine and thus deprive another person—a very deserving other person—of a new pair of shoes. Ridiculous even to think about it. And because the fundamental rules of journalism demand it, I think I'd better state right here that, as always, she is absolutely right. Star chef Tom Colicchio's steakhouse offers reserve wines from $25 to $130 per glass.