Most Expensive Wine!

[lorr_mun14]

I was shocked to pay £12.40 in the Mackays hotel at the weekend for 2 glasses of wine and one bottle of J2O (orange juice) I almost fell through the floor!!! When I questioned it I was told it was because it was Reisling!!! The cheaper version was still £4.40 (I think) for a glass. I have never paid prices like this anywhere for a glass of wine, and believe you me, I have had a few up and down the country!! Has anyone else been shocked by the prices in the Mackays hotel?

[Ash]

my god thats crazy, why on earth was it soo expensive, i love wine but not that much for a glass!!!

[northener]

I've been to restaurants with ridiculous prices for indifferent plonk and to other places where i've had a cracking glass for very little money.

Certainly, from my previous experiences of Mackays, I would say that their prices outstrip their quality when it comes to wine. The food's great, but even friends from down South (Home Counties) have commented on the big price/average quality of the wine list.

[davem]

Wine has started arriving in glasses twice as big as it used to. £5.50 for medium white in another caithness hostelry with far less atmosphere. Wine has always had a mark up when in bars or restaurants if you compare with a pile them high supermarket it will look expensive, consider staff, heating cleaning etc, you do get what you pay for. The days of a half decent bottle for £3.00 are long gone.
Mackays has always been a welcoming place, a major asset to Wick, it is a place that has high standards and they cost, you could choose elsewhere but I doubt if it'd be half as good for any saving you might make. It's a fine hotel, well run, why knock it?

Dave
- no I don't work there or have any connection other than it was the first place I stayed in Caithness a good few years ago and my impression has never altered since.

[ANNIE]

We paid £10 for two glasses of wine in a hotel in Aberdeen and that was 4 years ago

[hotrod4]

Most expensive "Wine" would have to be Posh Spice, oh sorry thats spelt differently!!! :)

[Valerie Campbell]

I was shocked to pay £12.40 in the Mackays hotel at the weekend for 2 glasses of wine and one bottle of J2O (orange juice) I almost fell through the floor!!! When I questioned it I was told it was because it was Reisling!!! The cheaper version was still £4.40 (I think) for a glass. I have never paid prices like this anywhere for a glass of wine, and believe you me, I have had a few up and down the country!! Has anyone else been shocked by the prices in the Mackays hotel?

It would be cheaper for you buying a bottle. Remember if you don't finish it you can take it home with you. Not many people do this but you've paid for it and are entitled to take it away with you. Maybe next time ask to see their price list.

[JamesMcVean]

Never mind the wine...I bought a G&T and Guinness...and got little change outa £12 in London!!

But nearer home ....spent £25 on a bottle of nice red at the Captains Galley in Scrbster a few years back...anniversary or something!!!

mmmmmmmm

James

[lorr_mun14]

Wine has started arriving in glasses twice as big as it used to. £5.50 for medium white in another caithness hostelry with far less atmosphere. Wine has always had a mark up when in bars or restaurants if you compare with a pile them high supermarket it will look expensive, consider staff, heating cleaning etc, you do get what you pay for. The days of a half decent bottle for £3.00 are long gone.
Mackays has always been a welcoming place, a major asset to Wick, it is a place that has high standards and they cost, you could choose elsewhere but I doubt if it'd be half as good for any saving you might make. It's a fine hotel, well run, why knock it?

Dave
- no I don't work there or have any connection other than it was the first place I stayed in Caithness a good few years ago and my impression has never altered since.

don't get me wrong, I am certainly not knocking the reputation of the Mackays, I know it is fantastic place to go/eat, although I have not ate there myself, I hear many good reports! I just think it is ridiculous to charge such high prices for drink, and think you can get away with it just because you have got a good reputation, we are surely not paying for reputation?? Reisling is not an expensive wine in my opinion, there are many others I would pay more for. My preference would be sauvignon blanc, but they didn't have any, only chardonnay, you would think that in an upmarket hotel, you would at least have that choice also! I realise that in this day and age, nothing comes cheap, but I do take umbridge to having to pay over the top prices (and in particular when you go to a restaraunt and buy a bottle of wine which costs £25 and you can buy the same one in the supermarket for less than half that price!).

[NickInTheNorth]

Reisling is not an expensive wine in my opinion, there are many others I would pay more for. My preference would be sauvignon blanc, but they didn't have any, only chardonnay, you would think that in an upmarket hotel, you would at least have that choice also!

The grape variety used to produce the wine has very little to do with the final price you will pay.

The quality (or perceived quality - snob value :D ) of the finished article has far more impact. Better labels from better areas will cost more than low quality brands from lower quality areas. Reisling seems to be having a resurgence in populairy, particularly now that the poor quality austrian and german wines are less common and some really nice crisp and dry wines with a lot of character are on the market.

As has already been mentioned when you buy wine in a restaurant or hotel you are paying a hefty premium for the service that goes with it. PArticularly so when buying by the glass.

When I was last employed as a sommelier many years ago one of my jobs was selecting and pricing the wines we sold. On average my markup, for sales by the bottle, above cost was 200% that is if I bought for £10 I sold for £30. By the glass it was 300%.

It is 20 years since I did that job, but was regularly selling wine by the glass at (125ml) £5 per glass. The most expensive I recall was £17 per glass!

So I guess that in reality the wine you had was not too badly priced.

I bet northerner can take a pretty good guess as to where I was working then!

[dirdyweeker]

We paid £10 for two glasses of wine in a hotel in Aberdeen and that was 4 years ago

£3.50 for a large glass of wine in the Highland Hotel, Crown Street, Aberdeen. And a cracking Hotel too!

[northener]

So I guess that in reality the wine you had was not too badly priced.

I bet northerner can take a pretty good guess as to where I was working then!

Oh, yes indeed. It always had a reputation for having a Sommelier who fleeced his customers!:lol:

[golach]

. Riesling seems to be having a resurgence in populairy, particularly now that the poor quality austrian and german wines are less common and some really nice crisp and dry wines with a lot of character are on the market.
From my days of being a Wine Steward and a Wine Butler, I have always like German Rieslings and now with the strict quality controls Riesling Wine are a much better quality these days.
You start off with the cheapest wine Tafelwien = Tablewine that is an every day run of the mill wine.
Then the Q.b.a. kicks in the Qualitatswein bestimmter Angaugebiete = Quality wine of a specified region, it then rises up the quality ladder.
Kabinett = the lowest ripened grapes
Spatlese = a later harvest, much riper grape
Auslese = A later harvest again, but hand picked grapes
Beerenauslese = Each grape is picked by hand
Eiswein = the grapes are left to virutually freeze then picked and pressed
Trockenbeerenauslese = these grapes are nearly raisins before being pressed and this is the sweetest of all the German Reislings
These wines are all given the Qualitatswein mit Pradiket certificate. Quality wine with special attributes.
Go enjoy your glass of wine , Prost [lol]

[Moi x]

I know I might be putting my head above the parapet here but it's 'Riesling' not 'Reisling' and I'm having difficulty attracting the attention of the best sword, the best bow and best kisser in the kingdom.

Moi x

[philupmaboug]

Thought that the first time I ate and drank there but on reflection I looked around and saw that the company and atmosphere was quality as opposed to quantity! may have been the price?