迷失大陆传世:同一款葡萄酒，四种不同价格

2011年 05月 27日 09:15
同一款葡萄酒，四种不同价格
Michel Lacroix/Associated Press
玛歌庄园(Chateau Margaux)
在
香港，只要花20港币（2.60美元）就能在麦当劳买一个汉堡。而在BLT汉堡餐厅(BLT Burger)点上一份澳洲和牛(AustralianWagyu)汉堡则需要花118港币：这里有一流的食材、豪华的座椅、以及出自名厨的料理——BLT由国际名厨劳伦特?图伦戴尔(LaurentTourondel)开办——一切都让人感觉到物有所值。
那么，葡萄酒的情况如何呢？
以一款玛歌庄园(ChateauMargaux)1983年份葡萄酒为例。在Gold餐厅，一瓶这样的葡萄酒售价10,000港币，而在Caprice餐厅，同样一瓶酒的价格就几乎翻了一番，达到19,500港币，在L'Atelier de JoelRobuchon餐厅的酒单上，它的价格是14,000港币，而在Cepage餐厅，同样年份的同样一款酒售价10,610港币。
Lam Thuy Vo/The Wall Street Journal
香港L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon餐厅的酒窖
Cepage餐厅的侍酒师梁志恒(Gon Leung)说，“在这方面没有统一的标准，每位侍酒师设定的价格都会有所不同。”
那么，是什么因素造成同一款葡萄酒会有如此大的价格差异呢？
餐厅加价
L'Atelierde Joel Robuchon餐厅的侍酒师伯努瓦?阿罗赞(BenoitAllauzen)说，“餐饮业对于葡萄酒的加价在50%到200%之间。”他补充说，葡萄酒的原价越高，加价幅度一般越小。（一瓶原价1,000港币的葡萄酒在餐厅多半会标到2,000港币，翻上一番；但一瓶原价10,000港币的葡萄酒不会标到20,000港币。）
Gold餐厅的老板及主厨哈兰?戈德斯坦(Harlan Goldstein)亲自编写葡萄酒单。他说自己在葡萄酒定价上比较“随意”，“只是在葡萄酒的进价上再加个一两千港币而已。”
Cepage餐厅的梁志恒谢绝透露给玛歌庄园的这款葡萄酒加了多少价，但他表示餐厅所有葡萄酒的平均成本是酒单所列价格的45%到50%左右。
香港葡萄酒供应商金门酒业(Golden Gate Wines)的老板托尼?马里恩(Toby Marion)说，很显然，一家餐厅的独立性越强，对于葡萄酒的定价自由度就越高，“餐厅不像酒店那样，有财务总监来制定各方面的标准。”
采购时间
一般来说，餐厅采购一批葡萄酒后，酒单上的价格就固定下来了，在库存卖完前不会改变售价。
L'Atelier餐厅的阿罗赞说，“我们只是在换货或者补货时才会改变价格。”这家餐厅每周卖出140瓶葡萄酒，但并不跟踪玛歌庄园这样的高价葡萄酒的每周销售情况。Gold餐厅每周售出40到55瓶葡萄酒，其中包括一两瓶玛歌庄园这样的精品佳酿。
不过葡萄酒的市场价格会有起伏涨落，对餐厅的定价会有影响。
举例而言，近年来，精品葡萄酒的价格大幅上升。一瓶2008年份的拉菲(Chateau Lafite Rothschild)在2009年的售价是260美元，而2010年的价格就超过了1,400美元。
戈德斯坦说，从理论上而言，那些在波尔多葡萄酒热潮兴起前就把酒窖装满的餐厅能为顾客提供更优惠的价格。他大约五年前采购了一批1983年份的玛歌庄园葡萄酒，每瓶只要8,000港币。
金门酒业的马里恩说，把握葡萄酒的采购时机“没那么简单”，因为葡萄酒进货价格并不是稳步上升的。比如说2008年，香港削减了80%的葡萄酒进口关税，导致葡萄酒价格大幅下跌；而全球经济危机又让全球葡萄酒的价格进一步缩水40%。马里恩说，“这意味着很多早期库存的葡萄酒进货价格比时价要贵。”
Caprice餐厅的侍酒师塞班斯蒂安?阿兰诺(SebastienAllano)说，该餐厅保存的1983年份玛歌庄园葡萄酒是在五年前葡萄酒关税削减前采购的，这批库存到目前还没有卖完。阿兰诺说，“1983年被视为一个葡萄酒的‘小年’——大多数葡萄酒的品质都不算太好，因此这个年份并不知名。1983年份葡萄酒卖出的速度不如1995年或1996年的知名年份那么快。”Caprice餐厅每天约售出25瓶葡萄酒。
采购数量
对特定某款葡萄酒来说，采购的数量越多，价格就越低。同样，与酒庄保持良好的关系也有利于降低餐厅的葡萄酒采购价格。
Caprice餐厅的阿兰诺说，“如果你跟酿酒商有良好的关系，就能订到更多的期酒（即在装瓶前就订购的葡萄酒）。”
Caprice餐厅为其所在的香港四季酒店(Four Seasons HongKong)集中采购葡萄酒，因此能拿到不错的价格。Cepage餐厅规模不大——只能接待60位顾客——但拥有巨大的采购议价能力，因为它隶属于新加坡Les Amis Group餐厅集团，后者还经营有一家Vinum葡萄酒分销公司。L'Atelier de JoelRubochon餐厅拿到的进货价格也不错，因为全球有超过10家Robuchon餐厅，而它们的葡萄酒一般都是统一采购的。
阿兰诺说，葡萄酒售价不一还有其它一些因素。如果葡萄酒是从酒庄或经纪商那里直接买来的，那么储存条件及运输情况会最终影响到价格。
当然，大多数葡萄酒爱好者都知道餐厅里的酒价格是偏高的。在谷歌(Google)或www.winesearcher.com网站搜索一下750毫升1983年份玛歌庄园葡萄酒，就能搜到市场价格在600到755美元之间，比任何餐厅的售价都要低得多。
对价格很在意的顾客该怎么做呢？金门酒业的马里恩建议，“自己带酒去餐厅，付开瓶费就行了。”
Same Wine Bottle, Four Different Prices
In Hong Kong, you can buy a burger at McDonald's for as little as 20Hong Kong dollars (US$2.60). Or, for $HK118, you can get an AustralianWagyu burger at BLT Burger. Premium ingredients, plush seating and acelebrity chef - in BLT's case Laurent Tourondel - all account for theprice disparity.
What about wine?
Take a bottle of ChateauMargaux 1983. At Gold restaurant, it costs HK$10,000. At Caprice, thesame wine goes for almost twice as much-HK$19,500. L'Atélier de Jo?lRobuchon has it on its wine list for HK$14,000. At Cépage, the samewine, same vintage, is HK$10,610.
'There's no set standard. Every sommelier prices his wines differently from the next,' says Gon Leung, the sommelier of Cépage.
So what factors contribute to these large variances in price for the same bottle of wine?
Mark-ups
'Mark-upsvary in the industry between 50% to 200%,' says Beno?t Allauzen,sommelier for L'Atélier de Jo?l Robuchon. The more expensive the wine,he adds, the lower the mark up tends to be. (A HK$1,000 bottle may beeasily marked up to HK$2,000, or 200%. But a bottle purchased forHK$10,000 won't be marked up to HK$20,000.)
Harlan Goldstein,chef and owner of Gold, compiled his own wine list. He says hisphilosophy on pricing is 'random.' 'I'll just tack on another HK$1,000or HK$2,000 to the price that I purchased it for.'
Mr. Leung, theCépage sommelier, declined to give specifics on his mark up on theChateau Margaux, but he says his total wine costs-the average costs forall wines in Cépage-amount to 45% to 50% of the prices listed on themenu.
Apparently, the more independent the restaurant, the moreflexibility there is in the pricing of wine, explains Toby Marion, theowner of the Hong Kong-based wine supply company Golden Gate Wines.'They don't have financial controllers breathing down their necks, like ahotel would.'
Timing
Typically, when a restaurantbuys bottles, prices are set for that batch on the wine list, and theydon't change until the inventory is gone.
'We only update theprice of wines once they require replacement or replenishment,' says Mr.Allauzen of L'Atélier. The restaurant sells 140 bottles a week, but itdoesn't specifically keep track of how many premium bottles, such as aChateau Margaux, sell each week. By comparison, Gold sells 40 to 55bottles of wine a week, and about one or two come from the list of moreexclusive wines, including the Chateau Margaux.
But wine prices tend to fall and rise for different reasons, which can affect the price-setting process.
Inrecent years, for instance, the price of premium wines has risendramatically. A bottle of 2008 Chateau Lafite Rothschild sold for aboutUS$260 in 2009, and cost more than US$1,400 in 2010.
In theorythen, restaurants that were building their wine cellars before Bordeauxfever set in can offer better prices to their customers, says Mr.Goldstein. He purchased his bottles of Chateau Margaux 1983 about fiveyears ago for roughly HK$8,000 each.
But Mr. Marion, the winesupplier, says timing is 'not so simple' because wine costs haven't beengoing up steadily. In 2008, for instance, when Hong Kong eliminated the80% wine tax, prices dropped dramatically. And the global economiccrisis drove prices down another 40% world-wide. 'This means a lot ofthe older inventory actually costs more,' Mr. Marion says.
AtCaprice, sommelier Sébastien Allano says that its bottles of ChateauMargaux 1983 were purchased five years ago, before the abolition of thewine tax, and the inventory has yet to sell out. '1983 was considered a'hard vintage,''-the year in general was not a great vintage for mostwines-'so not a lot people know it,' Mr. Allano says. 'It won't move asquickly as a famous vintage like 1995 or 1996.' At Caprice, roughly 25bottles of wine are sold a day.
Quantity
The morecases of a particular kind of wine you buy, the lower the purchaseprice. And having a relationship with a wine estate can work in therestaurant's favor as well.
'If you have a relationship with awine producer, you may get a larger allotment of en primeur wines [whenwines are purchased before they are bottled],' says Caprice's Mr.Allano.
Caprice buys for the entire Four Seasons Hong Kong hotel,so it tends to get a good price. Cépage restaurant seems small-it seatsjust 60 people at any given time-but it has huge purchasing powerbecause it is part of a Singapore-based parent company called Les AmisGroup that also runs wine-distribution company Vinum. And then there'sL'Atélier de Jo?l Rubochon, which probably gets a good price because themore than 10 Robuchon restaurants world-wide usually purchase winestogether.
Finally, other things matter, too, Mr. Allano says.Where a wine is purchased from (straight from the wine estate or througha broker), what the storage conditions have been and how it istransported all can influence the price at the end, he adds.
Atthe end of the day, of course, most wine drinkers understand thatrestaurants charge high prices. A simple search on Google orwww.winesearcher.com can turn up several street prices of a750-milliliter Chateau Margaux 1983-US$600 to US$755-that are far lowerthan what any of the restaurants are charging.
What should price-conscious guests do? Wine supplier Mr. Marion suggests: 'Bring your own bottle and pay the corkage.'