Blimey, look at the price of the wine!

*When they ask: "Who's the fool in the corner crying?"

I say: "Little ol' wine drinker me."*

• Dean Martin

We hear that song and we think: "How sad - glad that's not me." And then we go out to a restaurant and spend £50 on a bottle of Cloudy Bay Sauvignon worth £8, and the restaurateur thinks: "How sad - glad that's not me."

The mark-up on wine, particularly in London restaurants and hotel dining rooms, is becoming a conversation topic among the chattering classes, and this spells danger for establishments that go beyond the acceptable norm.

Look what's happening. Renowned restaurants are attracting customers with good-value food (lunch for £21, for example) and then stinging them with a 300% or more mark-up on wine. The reason for this is the increased pressure on restaurants to meet higher gross-profit targets. Where a gross profit of about 60% was once acceptable, now 70% is expected.

It is also a measure of greed.

Operators see the added margin on wine as morally acceptable because alcohol is an optional extra. Menus are displayed outside premises so that customers can gauge whether or not the food is in their price range. The wine list is seldom displayed, and it's only when the customer is seated inside that this added expense becomes apparent.

There is a growing problem with mark-ups, however. A number of customers now regard themselves as amateur fermented grape buffs. They read newspaper articles on wine; they read books on wine; they go to night classes to learn about wine; they take advantage of tutored purchases through their local wine club; they pay to do The Knowledge (all you ever needed to know about Sauvignon Blanc); they buy package holidays to Bordeaux and Burgundy; and, most of all, they buy good wine at reasonable prices in the supermarket every Saturday, or in Calais twice a year.

Now, when they go into a restaurant and find bottles on the wine list at the price of a small mortgage, they don't say: "That must be a good tipple." They say: "Cor blimey, ‘ave you seen the ticket on that one? That's nine quid in our local Tescos."

Little knowledge
Of course, this little knowledge thing works both ways. As customers become more acquainted with the names of good vintages, they pick their way through a wine list with greater care and they may be tempted to "show off", choosing bottles for their name, irrespective of price. This is why a £3.70 bottle of Merlot, which appeared on one famous restaurant's list at £27 by mistake, stayed at that price - because customers continued to pay for it.

It's unlikely that the improved education of wine consumers is going to eliminate the scandal of high mark-ups completely. Many (if not all) independent restaurants, and even the chains, will continue to use wine sales to stop their businesses from going into liquidation. It is the establishments that take the principle of mark-up to extremes - the ones that contribute to the allegations of "rip-off" London - that will need to watch out. We hope that their days are numbered and that the practice in general is in decline.

Now, let's talk about the cost of bottled water…

Forbes Mutch, Editor, Caterer & Hotelkeeper