Restaurant · wine bar · selling price
Wine by the glass markup: selling price and real margin
Purchase price, glass size, wastage, markup: the price of the glass incl. VAT, what an opened bottle brings in, and what is left when the last glass goes down the sink. On your own figures, without asking anyone.
The calculation
The markup (coefficient) is applied to the purchase price excl. VAT and gives a selling price incl. VAT: that is standard practice in French restaurants, with the VAT built in. Here 20%, the rate for alcoholic drinks.
Markup benchmarks seen in practice
| Type | Bottle | By the glass | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bistro, brasserie | 3 – 4 | 4 – 5 | Volume and turnover. The wine of the day makes the takings. |
| Fine-dining restaurant | 2.5 – 3.5 | 4 – 6 | Lower markup on the great bottles, otherwise they don't sell. |
| Wine bar, cave à manger | 2 – 3 | 3.5 – 5 | Wine shop price plus an in-house corkage fee; the glass is the main offer. |
| Hotel, room service | 4 – 5 | 5 – 7 | Service and long opening hours justify the top of the range. |
Ranges observed in France in 2026. A markup is not a law: it is the price your customers accept, divided by what you pay.
Why does wine by the glass earn more than the bottle?
Because it carries a higher markup, and because it gets tables drinking wine that would not have ordered a bottle. Two covers each taking a €6 glass generate €12 from a fifth of a bottle; the same bottle sold whole at €30 generates €30 from 100% of the contents. Per centilitre, the glass wins.
How do you count wastage on an opened bottle?
A 75 cl bottle does not give 6.25 glasses of 12 cl: the dregs, drips during service and sediment take 3 to 6 cl. Count 5 cl of wastage, so 5 full glasses and half a glass you will not sell. And when the bottle stays open for two days, the last glass goes down the sink: the calculator shows what that costs.
Do you need a gas preservation system?
For bottles above €30 excl. VAT opened by the glass, yes: the system pays for itself as soon as it saves two glasses a week. For the wine of the day at €8 excl. VAT, no: turnover does the job. In between, a bottle of the day, changed every service, avoids the problem without equipment.
How many wines by the glass on a list?
As many as you can empty in two days. For a 40-cover bistro, four to six: two reds, two whites, a rosé in season, a sparkling. Beyond that, it is open stock oxidising. The full structure is built on the page restaurant wine list.
The purchase price that goes in the first box
The markup never makes up for a purchase price that is too high. At €9 excl. VAT a bottle, a glass at €6 incl. VAT leaves a comfortable margin; at €14 excl. VAT, you have to sell the glass at €9 and the table hesitates. The page wine for restaurants explains what a Bordeaux wine merchant offers direct: trade prices, free delivery threshold, samples, old vintages for the list.