American Cuisine with a European flair Reservations: (561) 744-5054 | Make a Reservation Online | Ok, maybe it's because I'm a little under the weather as I write this but, dagnabbit I am more than a little bent right now. What can it take, for the love of Mike, to get a decent, well-priced glass of wine at a restaurant? Time after time, meal after meal, I bring a bottle of wine with me to dinner, seeing as I am in the business. But I always take a look at the list, just in case there is a cool, reasonably-priced by-the-glass option to kick-start the evening. Alas, more often than not, I'm rippin' out my bottle straight away and gladly paying the $25 corkage fee, realizing I might have to pay that twice knowing the crew I run around with. Related: A best-value wine pick from Bordeaux How hard can it be? Why do restaurants consistently charge $10 (or more) a glass for a bottle that costs $6 (or less) wholesale? I understand the concept of getting your cost back on the first pour, but c'mon, this is getting silly.

Since I am a wine seller, life for me will go on. where to buy textbook wineI have enough wine street smarts to navigate lists and find something decent or bust out my own bottle if it's not happening. the best wine shop llcMy concern, however, is for that group of wine drinkers that we fine wine merchants (and, we hope, progressive restaurateurs), are trying to transition over from Two (and a half) Buck Chuck and Yellowtail to another level of wine, one that, while not much more expensive ($10 to $12 a bottle retail instead of $2.49 or $8) delivers another dimension of flavor and styles.best wine list in spain If restaurants are going to be content with trying to squeeze as many dollars as they can out of a bottle, we will soon lose touch with this new wave of wine drinkers. sea smoke winery owner

We won't be able to bridge the gap and continue to nurture their palates if these people are forced to pay $12 for a glass of mediocre "coastal" Cabernet, when they could be paying $6 for a fabulous Old Vine Grenache from Spain, or Picpoul from the Languedoc. red wine case iphoneAt $12 for an ok glass of Cabernet, I would be reaching for beer provided I didn't have that wine in my bag.buy wine posters Related: A Pinot Noir graced by a "miracle" of sun in Oregon And that's the point. Merchants and restaurateurs have to work together to foster and educate this new generation of wine lovers. There are numerous studies showing that millennials are very curious about wine but, like many folks nowadays, do not have serious money burning a hole in their pockets. That said, these consumers are also curious about craft brews, so they often have a unique, artisan drinking experience for less -- simply because there is some kind of archaic formula in place dictating the minimum price for a glass of wine.

What if restaurants charged $6 (the price of a 12-ounce beer, for the most part) for an interesting glass of wine? Not wicker basket Chianti, not corporate Cabernet, not private label Chardonnay sourced from Fresno, but a real, authentic, genuine bottle of wine that could open eyes. Would they lose money or sell more wine? Would they gain customers because they were offering cool wines at great prices? Granted, more restaurants have expanded their wine lists to include many offerings south of $50 a bottle. But let's be honest, that was born out of necessity based on the economy, and was hardly a peace offering to those of us who couldn't find a bottle less than $75 just a few short years ago. Why couldn't restaurants apply that same philosophy to their by-the-glass programs? Related: Drink wine by a biodynamic calendar Trust me when I say the corporate wine world wants to keep everything just the way it is. There is a wealth of boring cheap wine tied into the spirits business.

This wine is essentially sold for nothing to engage restaurants to purchase bar liquors from these large wine/spirits conglomerates. One thing I've noticed is that when the dining establishment is smaller, and has no spirits, the wine selection tends to be stronger. The "big boys" want the restaurants to do one-stop shopping since, to them, wine is merely a greaser to sell more gin. The problem is, more than a few restaurants are all too happy to comply. I say to those restaurants, "fight the power!" and don't let the man keep you down. Take a chance, engage your customers, and show them the world of wine is more than whatever the distributor is closing out that month. Find interesting, food-friendly wines and sell the wine for a fair price. I'll help you out. Email me, or look at our list of sub-$10 wines on our website. Before you know it, I think your customers may be having a revelatory moment like Steve Martin's character in The Jerk: "Well if this is out there just think how much more is out there!"

Top photo: Kyle Meyer. Zester Daily Soapbox contributor Kyle Meyer is a managing partner and director of purchasing for , a new online retail fine-wine experience. More from Zester Daily: » Travel-inspired recipes guide Chef Susan Feniger. » Salon du Chocolat: What's different about the sweet treat. » Elin's Wine Pick: 2009 Chateau Fourcas-Borie. » Fight Cancer: Top 10 foods to decrease inflammation.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. Standout: 2010 Sine Qua Non Five Shooter Syrah ($100). Marea, New York City Top Barolos and Brunellos share space with older rarities here. Standout: 2003 Emidio Pepe Montepulciano d'Abruzzo ($42). A lengthy list of Coravin-poured wines has some surprising values. Standout: 2000 Domaine Raveneau Montée de Tonnerre Chablis 1er Cru ($50). Swift & Sons, Chicago