Help Me With Wine List - Houston's Doris Metropolitan Steakhouse

[Jeremy_C]

@Chuck Miller

@J O S H L O N G

@dsimmons

What is their corkage policy. I almost always bring my own when they allow it. Wine you know will be good and at a much friendlier price point.

Cannot BYOB since the restaurant serves liquor. Very few restaurants allow it here. Sucks.

I’m curious what the logic of this restriction is. I assume you mean since they serve hard liquor, not just having a beer/wine license.

Chuck, in Texas you are not allowed to BYO if the establishment has a (hard) liquor license. If it has only a beer and wine license, then it is permissible.

[Tom_Reddick]

Most of this list reads like many new restaurant lists these days- wines that the wholesaler cannot get the retailers to buy. 90% of this list I would not buy at a wine store- and certainly not at restaurant prices. The few things that have even any remote blue chip appeal (none are full-on winners) are priced absurdly even by restaurant standards. This is not a well-curated list. Not at all.

The one real pleasant surprise for me was seeing 2006 Chateau Magdelaine. That is a strong vintage for Magdelaine, if not one of the greats, and most curiously it has never shut down as that wine tends to do. Most recently I found it starting to show good secondary development, and while it has a long way to go, it should pair quite nicely with a good steak right now.

$265 is a bit pricey for that wine on a restaurant list, but if you want a good experience I would go with either the Magdelaine or one of the Beaucastel vintages. And I would also ask some hard questions on provenance- because the relative concentration of “older” vintages is a bit odd.

[Alan_Rath]

@Tom Reddick

Most of this list reads like many new restaurant lists these days- wines that the wholesaler cannot get the retailers to buy. 90% of this list I would not buy at a wine store- and certainly not at restaurant prices…

And then, bizarrely, they have one beautiful white: the Bruno Giacosa Arneis, at a not bad twice retail. I’d happily drink that wine any night of the week, including with a nice Texas steak

[Tom_Reddick]

@Alan Rath

@Tom Reddick

Most of this list reads like many new restaurant lists these days- wines that the wholesaler cannot get the retailers to buy. 90% of this list I would not buy at a wine store- and certainly not at restaurant prices…

And then, bizarrely, they have one beautiful white: the Bruno Giacosa Arneis, at a not bad twice retail. I’d happily drink that wine any night of the week, including with a nice Texas steak

Fair point- that is one great wine. I am not sure who to thank, but at some point in history someone in the trade developed a very good relationship there because Texas is a terrific place to get Giacosa at all levels- with the Roero Arneis being widely available in retail and restaurants. If I had to make a list of “Best under $30 that you can actually find here”, that would be on the list no doubt.

[Ian_Sutton]

Rather odd that they’re happy to make decent profit on cheaper bottles, but super-profits on more expensive bottles, almost as if the markup % increases as they go up the range.

I do think there ought to be better profit to be made in tempting people to trade up to something more expensive, by having a bigger markup on cheaper wines than the more expensive ones. Better to make $30 on a wine selling for $70, than $20 on a wine selling for $40