With new wine bars sprouting up all over the country, many are trying to position themselves differently. Some go for a foreign theme like Spanish Tapas or a French Brasserie. Some do the casual, “we’re cool but we drink wine” thing and other, are going with the irregular pours. There are a few such restaurants in Boston, Clink at the new Liberty Hotel and Bin 26 in Beacon Hill.
The idea usually stems from the concept of sharing and experimenting with many different wines in one night. Both Clink and Bin 26 give the customers the option of a few different size pour; 100ml, 250ml, 500ml and 750ml or a bottle. I have beef with this system for a few different reasons, but namely, none of these are close to the standard glass pour we are all use to.
For those of you not well versed in the metric system (lord knows I’m terrible at it and I even lived in France for a year) I will explain exactly how these sizes break down.
Stand sizes:
750ml - this is a bottle and it’s been the standard size for wine for hundreds of years.
375ml – half bottle, also a standard size, is the equivalent to two, nice sized glasses of wine.
187 ml - a standard glass pour in a restaurant or bar. This is exactly, one quarter of a bottle of wine. Personally, I like to pour smaller glasses and get 5 glasses out of a bottle, but if I’m ordering at a bar, I would definitely like my money’s worth.
New Bar Sizes
100ml – this is enough for a few good sips, not enough for a meal and hardly worth the $5 – $16 some of these places are charging for a taste.
250ml – a quarter of a bottle of wine. Yes, the Ridel Bordeaux stemware can fit this much wine with room to spare, but there is a reason you only pour as high as the widest part of the glass. Swirling is important to some people but not spilling a full glass of wine is important to all people. There is a reason why these things are shaped this way.
500ml – this is actually a good size for inexpensive wine in a bistro setting. It’s know as a carafe and is perfect for one person or a couple who don’t want to get a little tipsy over dinner.
I guess my biggest problem with these irregular pours is that I found nothing wrong with the previous system. Any decent bar will pour you a taste of a wine before you order it and the standard sizes seem more on par with the quantity people drink. There are even new laws in Massachusetts and other states that allow an unfinished wine bottle to be recorked, placed in a special bag and taken home. This accounts for the people who don’t want to drink an entire bottle at once.
Plus, if you’re into trying a few new wines and sharing, most wine bars will have “flights.” This is the perfect way to try 3, 4 or 5 different wines, side by side.
Finally, changing the size of the pour makes it more difficult for the consumer to judge how much they are paying for a certain quantity of wine. Most restaurants mark up bottles 300 – 500%. By charging $16 for 100ml, this makes the entire bottle worth more than $120. I’m not saying all wine bars with irregular pours are overcharging their customers, but it sure makes it difficult to tell.
