Arguably a restaurant should be offering special wines to customers anyway, and should avoid 'volume' wines. If the wines are not so well known, then the restaurant wine list and staff should present the wines well and encourage customer confidence. Slower moving specialised wines have a higher margin. Fast moving well known brands have less. A restaurant which allows BYO wine and provides the sort of wine services listed above should charge appropriately.
Many restaurants choose to operate with less markup on wines than the true costs.
Possibly, higher sales of wines will occur as a result. More likely, the true cost of serving wine will be subsidised by the profit made on the food. It is sobering to reflect on the amount which flows to the winemaker. Landed Cost' means that the bottle has been delivered with various taxes and fees paid. Andrew Corrigan MW is a principal writer of the Harris-Corrigan Wine Report and writes a weekly wine column in the Cairns Post and can be heard on regional ABC radio each Thursday morning discussing food and wine.