If you tend to go for the second cheapest wine on a menu in a restaurant, then read on as this one is for you!

Psychologically, there are many common denominators as to why a lot of us might go for the second cheapest wine: possibly because you don't want to look like you're just going for the cheap option, if you're trying to keep things a little tighter, or maybe you're not a massive wine fan (although that last one is unlikely if you are reading this, a wine blog...). For all these reasons, going for the second cheapest option on a list is only natural.

But there is a good reason why you shouldn't do this...

Some restaurants, especially the bigger ones, and the chains, will be aware of these tendencies and will try and game the system against you.

So quite often the second cheapest actually will have cost them less to buy than the cheapest wine listed on the menu.

Get ready for some maths...

Let's take what an average restaurant's profit margin would be on wine. It will vary slightly depending on the restaurant style and location, but nowadays, it's around 70%.

So a bottle of wine that costs the restaurant £7 (before VAT) would then be charged to you as a customer at around £28.

That could be the cheapest wine on their wine list. They might then also buy a bottle of wine that only cost them £6, put a higher margin on just that wine versus everything else on the list (let's say a margin of 75%), meaning it costs you around £30.

So you're going to be buying a wine that is cheaper to the restaurant, but actually more expensive (to you) than the cheapest one (to them) on the list, ergo, you're paying more for a "worse" (/cheaper) wine.

What would we recommend?

Start off with the house wine as your base point. Even if it is the cheapest. It's not going to blow your socks off.

Look, it might not be super complex, but it's the house wine for a reason. It's something that the team at the restaurant can get behind and you know it is going to be nice regardless.

After that, if you're not keen on the house wine, then look for regions that aren't really notable. If you go for super recognisable regions, you're usually paying more for the name than you are the quality of the wine.

Don't be afraid to ask the team. There's going to be at least one person in that front of house team who really knows the wine list inside out, and they'll be there to help you.

Lastly, if you see the wine list beforehand and you want some expert advice before getting there, then just feel free to give us a shout. We might be an online wine subscription business, but we also just like helping people with wine at any time.