Wines Available in 187ml bottles

WINE TALK
1

I’m developing a wine by the glass program for a small operation in farm country and have decided to set up a list of 8-12 different wines in 187ml bottles. This will keep their waste to a minimum and be easy for their “not real wine educated” staff to handle.

But I’m not sure what is out there outside of the basics from Beringer and Gallo. I’ve seen Hardy’s from Australia as well -

What else is available in 187mls?

I know airlines have things specially bottled for them - but those are rarely available commercially -

Any recommendations would be much appreciated -

Thanks for the help -

2

Mostly the same quality of stuff. If you’re ITB, don’t you have access to some type of catalog/database?

In NY we have the Beverage Network (they do several states actually) so all I have to do is go to the website and sort by size and I have a list of everything available from all the suppliers who list with them (about 60% but this includes the 2 big houses of Charmer & Southern).

Some other brands that popped up:

Cavit
Barefoot
Black Swan
Bolla
Concha y Toro
Hacienda
Alice White
Agustinos (Chile)

3

The sales staffs out in the country here leave much to be desired Brent - I knew the basic labels that were available - just curious over what is new - and might be a step above the norm - I see that Santa Rita just came out with 187mls for example -

4

Pommery champagne and a few other brands

5

I’ve seen a number of Canadian ice wines in 187s, Inniskillin pops to mind. And noted above, some Champagnes.

Cheers,
-Robert

6

Piper Heidsieck NV is available in 187ml.

7

Moet is also available in 187 ml. So are some of the high-end german ice wines.

8

Vino Volo sells (or sold) Feuillatte Champagne in 187mL. Pommery’s 187mL is “Pop” branded. I actually own Loosen BA from 2006 in 187mL, which I think was the first time they did a bottling in that size (it was done to bring the price-of-entry down to a level that might encourage people to try it).

It seems to me that marking 375mL bottles with a “half-way” line and asking an untrained staff to pour half as a serving is not out of reason and leaves you with limited waste (and an opportunity to let your staff have leftovers at the end of the night without too much profit erosion). This would greatly expand your selection space.

Cheers,
fred

9

[scratch.gif] Sounds like this would have their waste at a maximum.

10

Thomas, I recall Donkey and Goat came out with a 187ml sampler set about a year ago. [cheers.gif]

11

Canadian Ince WInes will often come in this size, and I have seen Henry of Pelham bottle this size many times.

12

Except for splits of Champagne (and not a lot of good Champagne at that, but there are some exceptions) or maybe some Canadian ice wines (although those tend to be 200 ml if they are available in such small bottles), and some sampler packs (I didn’t know about Donkey and a Goat, but I think I remember Brian Loring doing it a while back) I doubt you will be able to find much in a bottle that size at all that is worth drinking, much less featuring in a restaurant that is even remotely serious about a good wine by the glass program.

For one thing, the cost is much more than it is worth in a restaurant setting since it is much more efficient to just open a bottle for your by the glass program. Airlines, even the ones where the is more than the typical plonk that comes in 187s, tend to have them made for them, and even then, it isn’t anything to write home about. The last time I flew Air France, the good wine available was being poured from a normal bottle, the baby bottles were vin ordinaire at best.

13

This is farm country - they may sell two glasses of wine on a monday night, then go four days without selling another - you can only vacuvin wines so much - and I am not there to monitor the system - their young bartenders would not know how to keep bottles fresh (and I don’t trust them to vacuvin after every glass) - so the 187ml is full proof - and there are some decent wines (well, drinkable) being bottled in them - they usually sell for $1.00 to $1.50 each - so they would sell in the bar for $2.95 to $3.50 -

White Zinfandel and Moscato will be the big sellers here - but the owners want to expand the selection, and they happen to be long time friends of my girlfriend’s family, so I have to help them -

14

Thomas- I hear you w/ restaurant spoilage–I was referring to the packaging.

What about something like this?
http://www.deloachvineyards.com/Wine-Shop/Barrel-to-Barrel