Restaurant life

VS

Victor de la Serna
Wine pricing: Modest resto in Brittany, France, middling 2010 muscadet, 20. Modest resto in Vitoria, Spain, 1989 white Tondonia Reserva, 20
 
but have you adjusted for cost of living in the respective regions? Wait, what am I saying, these figures *define* the cost of living.
 
Per capita GDP in Spain's Basque Country (2009), 32,000 euros; per capita GDP in France's Brittany (2009), 26,500 euros.
 
Brittany is France's rust belt. Though the lobsters... € € €.

So, VS, what is the logic behind the Tondonia pricing?

I remember going to a random Muscadet producer in the Côtes de Grandlieu a few years ago, and the Gros Plant was 2.13 € a bottle, the Muscadet 2.45 €, and the chardonnay 2.83 €.

Greedy bistro owners?
 
Seriously. Who in Brittany is paying more than 4 for Muscadet, bar old vintages or fab special cuvees?
 
Have you found muscadet for 4 euros in French restaurants? Not me. Actually, I mean sur lie, but never from top names like Écu, Landron or Luneau-Papin, and always very recent vintages: in a week in Brittany, never under 16-17 euros. The last meal, at a place called Auberge du Pont (idyllic setting, mediocre food) at Paluden, was when it went up to 20 euros.

In Vitoria, the very good price for white Tondonia was probably due to the fact that at a modest (but good), middle-class 'tasca' like Casa Felipe they probably sell little 'expensive' white (not a very popular category around these parts). So they probably got the vintage for around 14 euros (the current '93 is 17 euros), didn't raise the price, and maintained their overall, extremely prudent margin level.

Fivefold increases and such other French follies are practically unheard of south of the Pyrenees, even for very ritzy three-star places. Even the recently deceased (no, not from a lack of wine-related income) El Bulli had what I consider a comparatively inexpensive wine list.
 
originally posted by kirk wallace:
about $85 on the Union Square Cafe list
For $85, El Bulli would serve you a 2004 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrières, a 1998 Jean-Marc Boillot Puligny-Montrachet Referts. For less money, a 2004 Dom. de la Sansonnière Anjou, a 2004 Sarda-Malet Terroir Mailloles Blanc Côtes du Roussillon, a 2007 Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas Rías Baixas.
 
originally posted by VS:
originally posted by kirk wallace:
about $85 on the Union Square Cafe list
For $85, El Bulli would serve you a 2004 Latour-Giraud Meursault Genevrières, a 1998 Jean-Marc Boillot Puligny-Montrachet Referts. For less money, a 2004 Dom. de la Sansonnière Anjou, a 2004 Sarda-Malet Terroir Mailloles Blanc Côtes du Roussillon, a 2007 Do Ferreiro Cepas Vellas Rías Baixas.
So twist the knife.
 
originally posted by VS:
Restaurant lifeWine pricing: Modest resto in Brittany, France, middling 2010 muscadet, 20. Modest resto in Vitoria, Spain, 1989 white Tondonia Reserva, 20

Yeah, but you fucking hate Tondonia.

And in Spain, all the wine is cooked.

Drinking in euros is a fools game, anyway. At least for us AA+ Americans.
 
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