Arbitrage.
We look for it on every wine menu. Last Friday night, we found it on the wine list at Pierponts in Kansas City.
Our special prize was a 2007 Kuleto Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. This bottle retails for $50 from the winery, but was selling for just $58 on the Pierponts wine list. A normal restaurant price might be in the $100 - $150 range, so this was clearly arbitrage! I actually asked our waiter to confirm the price just in case I was misreading the menu.
This is a beautiful wine. It's made from 97% Cabernet Sauvignon, 1% Cabernet Franc, 1% Malbec, and 1% Petite Verdot grapes, all from Kuleto's vineyards in the hills above eastern Napa Valley. The nose is pure Cab, with dark fruit and silky tannins that hold up well to all sorts of food without being overpowering.
Our Quest for Arbitrage
Restaurants typically mark up the wine they sell by two to three times retail. This is one of the reasons why we often bring our own wine to restaurants (see our full list here), but lugging a bottle around isn't always feasible when we travel. We have a few tricks for selecting wine at a restaurant (see them here), but arbitrage always makes things more exciting. It's always great to get something on sale!