A Brief History of Wine By The Glass
By: Scott James
It’s standard fare these days to find quality wines served by the glass in restaurants. In fact, the trend has become such a phenomenon since the recession that it’s having an impact on the Bay Area’s celebrated wine country – that’s the subject of my column today.
It wasn’t always this way.
Sure, inexpensive “house red” and “house white” wines by the glass have been around for generations. But the concept of being able to purchase an upscale wine by the glass had its beginnings in the Bay Area.
It started in 1987 with Opus One, the famed red wine created by Napa Valley’s Mondavi clan in partnership with the Baron Philippe de Rothschild wine aristocracy of France. Produced in California, back then Opus One sold for the unprecedented price of $50 a bottle. The most expensive American wine until then cost $19.95 a bottle.
“We had to do something fairly extraordinary to familiarize people with Opus,” recalled Stu Harrison, who worked at Opus One in those days. Getting folks to splurge on a full bottle would take some convincing, but perhaps if connoisseurs could try it be the glass, they’d be smitten.
So at select restaurants, including the Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse chain in Texas, Opus was offered at $8 a glass. That was a pretty steep price – a glass of wine then generally sold for $3 or less.
To showcase the wine as special, and to make sure that only three ounces were poured per customer, Opus sent the wine with little branded glass creamers. The precise amount of wine went into the creamer, and from there it was poured into a glass. It was like a little ceremony, and those little creamers became collector’s items – souvenirs of a special occasion.
Harrison said all of this was kept secret from Baron de Rothschild. Since wines by the glass back then were considered cheap, lowbrow vintages, there was concern that the French would have been appalled to learn that Opus was being marketed this way. Rather than risk any wrath, they didn’t tell the baron. Taisez-vous!
Today wines by the glass are ubiquitous, and quite profitable for restaurants. The general rule of thumb is that the price charged for one glass is what the entire bottle cost the restaurant. That’s a markup of about 500%.
But, in a new trend, many wines served by the glass in restaurants don’t start in bottles at all.
Free Flow Wines, based in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood, began operating in June 2009, specializing in wine in kegs. Managing partner Dan Donahoe said there has been such a surge in interest that the company is two years ahead on its business plan.
“It’s blowing up,” said Donahoe. “It was a trickle a year ago, and now it’s flood.”
Free Flow sells its own wines under the brand Silvertap (4,000 cases sold in 2010), but also kegs wines for other vineyards. The kegs are tall and skinny, made of stainless steel, holding the equivalent of more than two cases (five gallons) of wine under nitrogen pressure, which Donahoe says keeps the wine in perfect form.
In addition to serving the growing demand for wine by the glass, there’s also an environment plus: a typical restaurant can save four tons of bottle waste per year by switching to kegs.
They weren’t thinking about that when Opus One launched its wine by the glass venture back in 1987 – they just wanted to create buzz. And it worked. These days Opus One sells for a minimum of $160 a bottle – if you can find it.