How Restaurants Manipulate You to Order Wine

Rory Sutherland tells why restaurants want you to order wine more than any other drink.

Rory Sutherland’s fascinating study dives into the subtle psychology behind why restaurants push us to order wine more than any other drink. His insights reveal how establishments carefully manipulate the dining experience to guide us toward that glass of vino.

It’s not just about taste—there's a calculated strategy at play. Restaurants often have a separate wine menu, physically different from the regular drinks list, making wine feel like a more premium, "special" choice. By having its own menu, wine becomes an event, something that stands out on its own. It’s less about just getting a drink and more about choosing a refined experience.

And here’s the kicker: notice how, when you sit down, the wine glasses are already placed on the table? That’s no accident. It’s a psychological nudge, subtly suggesting that wine is the expected drink for the evening. It plants the idea in your mind before you even think about ordering, creating a sense of social or dining expectation. The sight of those empty wine glasses signals that wine is the natural choice to complete the dining experience.

All these small tactics add up to make you feel like wine is not just an option but the best option, or even the only option for a meal with sophistication. Restaurants do this because wine is often one of the highest-margin items, meaning it brings in more profit than other drinks. So the next time you're handed a wine menu and see those glasses gleaming in front of you, know that it's all part of a clever strategy to enhance your dining experience while driving up the restaurant's profit!

Want video and photo content that grabs attention and drives views?
Order your custom videos from us today and watch your brand soar!

Don't forget to follow us on Instagram - @financian_

Don't forget to follow us on TikTok - @financian_

#short #shorts

[financian_]

Want video and photo content that grabs attention and drives views? 🎥🔥
Order your custom videos from us today and watch your brand soar!
Check the bio 🔗

[tunamayo]

People may disagree, but I think Chateu D’unknown has a simpler taste than Chateu D’obscure

[amarok]

My uncle works at one of the biggest wineries in Brazil and, talking to the winery owner, heard that "they could sell their bottles for half the price they were selling and still profit, but people won't buy it if it was cheaper because cheap equals bad"

I’m always fascinated by the tricks and psychology of sales.

[BlizzardofChizz]

I used to work in the wine distribution business on the retail sales end. There’s a reason wine prices in restaurants don’t match the prices in the shops and it’s very intentional. In the shops eye level on the shelves is where you find mid range priced bottles. It’s the first wines you see.. to recreate this psychological effect on a menu, they do it with pricing. A 15 dollar bottle in the shop is now 25 or 30 on the menu because there is usually a by the glass price as well. You don’t want to sell the bottle for 15 because your glass prices then end up in the 5 to 6 dollar range. That psychologically reduces your bottle from a good mid tier wine to something people perceive as a cheap glass of wine. So by raising the price per bottle, it raises the price per glass. You are now paying 8 -10 dollars per glass for what you now perceive as a nice mid range wine.

[rawwad]

I am Slovak living in Slovakia. I am ordering beer. Thank you for reading my story.

[ChristopherStendeck]

I never order wine in restaurants, and I actually get the impression your food comes out quicker if you don't because they want to turn your table quicker.

[carlosfurtado]

There's a quote that goes "customers drink me rich and eat me poor." I cannot for the life of me remember who said it, but it makes perfect sense. Restaurants usually try to get diners to get alcohol given that they can charge many times its actual value.

[firstpersonwinner]

As someone who worked in many restaurants it is a bit simpler: Wine by the glass is usually charged at the price of the bottle, so youve at least broken even on the bottle if you inly manage to sell one glass out if it. Bottles are usually sold at the price of 4ish glasses, which is what you'd get out if a bottle. A lot of restaurants do a standard markup of 300-400% on the price of ingredients so this isn't abnormal.

[burethugo]

french boy here, living in Bordeaux: when i was 13 we visited a chateaux with my middle school class, we saw the best wine of the region. At the end of the tour, our guide said to us : "u see that big jar there? it's the bad wine, it goes to china and the USA, and we can sell it even more pricey than the best wine you saw before"

[jorgedeanoperez]

Grapes farmer here. We spend an abhorrent amount of time, water, labor and money throughout the year to keep the vines healthy and the grapes safe until they're ripe. Then we spend one to two weeks of back-breaking labor harvesting them from dawn till dusk (our own harvest begins this Monday. I'm not looking forward to it). Then we sell the grapes to the wine makers, dirt cheap. Some makers have their own vineyards, but most need to take in supply from farmers to keep up with demand. They sell the bottle relatively cheap. I know the makers I sell to sell their bottles at 5 €, they pay us 2€ approximately per kilo. Last time I saw one at a restaurant, it costed 35€.

I know not everyone has one near them, but if you have a winery near you, or a vineyard that also brews, buy from them. Restaurants will scam the poopoo out of you

[joshmakarenko]

A manager at a steakhouse I worked at showed me their master list for wine costs and prices once. On average they markup the cheaper wines ($20-40) 3-4x cost whereas the expensive bottles ($80+) are usually barely marked up or sold at cost. Beyond volume people buying the expensive wines know prices and will balk if an $80 bottle is $120+ at the restaurant

[jacobfield]

"Chateu D’ saw you coming" is the most expensive wine in my local bar.

[NoToBigBro]

People say wine is good for your health, then I remembered that it's a multi-billion $ industry and they have lobbyists.

[him]

When I was in Paris I noticed a table ordered a wine that you can get in Tesco, La Vieille Farm. It’s £6.00 a bottle, and that’s after it’s been imported to the UK. This restaurant on the streets of Paris was charging €55 for it.

[kestertroy]

Wine importer here. This is very true in every bit. Not to mention that they could negotiate for an even lower price from importers, if they sell a certain wine by the glass.

[quentinarnaud]

I'm french. This summer we did a little tasting test with my grandma. She gave me 3 glasses and asked me to recognize the cheapest to the most expensive. One was around 9€ (which isn't bad at all), another around 30 and another around 90. Got them all right and it was so easy. When a wine doesn't taste good, it strikes me quickly. Now, everyone has different tastes but I believe there is definitely room for the average person to learn to decipher the aromas.

[JBruv]

I run a restaurant and we are pretty good bout wine prices. We charge roughly 2x on the bottle, slightly lower if the wine is more expensive and slightly over if its cheeper

[rwtfallenjf]

There is only one question you ask
Me: "how many bottles?"
Red or white
Me: "oh... yeah."

[koenven]

I've heard the story that the most marked-up wine in most restaurants is the second most expensive, because people don't want to get the most expensive one but also don't want to be seen as cheap.
I don't know if it's true or not, because I don't really like wine so I never order it in a restaurant.