How to order wine at a restaurant without overpaying

Restaurant wine lists run on a math you can beat. Bottles usually cost three to four times what the restaurant paid, and cheaper wines carry the steepest percentage markup. Order mid-list, name a price to the sommelier, and the same budget buys better wine. The catch: the most famous bottles hide the worst numbers. The numbers come from the trade. A rundown by The Reluctant Gourmet, updated 17 July 2026, puts the standard band at 200% to 300% over wholesale cost. A Guardian wine column by Fiona Beckett, from February 2011, describes the flip side: fixed cash margins at the top, percentage markups that sting at the bottom. Here is the playbook. What the standard markup bands look like The baseline barely moves. The Reluctant Gourmet's July 2026 update pegs typical restaurant wine at 200% to 300% over wholesale cost, which lands most bottles at three to four times what the restaurant paid, with ceilings in expensive markets pushed to five or six times.

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