Daniel Grigg: Rubbish wine – hospitality’s bad global habit
By Daniel Grigg, 25 February 2026
-
Share:
12
Barefoot, owned by E. & J. Gallo Winery, is now the biggest-selling American “wine” brand by volume. It is also no longer cheap. There was a time when consumers accepted that wine priced at £5 or £6 was likely to be of relatively poor quality, to put it politely. Rising UK duty and costs mean selling wine at that price is no longer viable unless someone in the supply chain takes a loss. I recently saw Barefoot at £9.50, with the not-much-better Yellow Tail at £9.75. At that price, consumers rightly expect something at least palatable. Apparently, for many, Barefoot is…
Many people also enjoy McDonald’s, Burger King, Wimpy, or other fast-food outlets. I was recently overcome with guilt and joy in equal measure to be served freshly cooked chips at McDonald’s, too hot to eat and yet shamelessly devoured, before tucking into a surprisingly good special burger. The whole meal cost £12 including the surcharge for a full-fat Coke rather than zero sugar, so it damn well should have been enjoyable at that price.
Nothing is cheap anymore in the UK. It is often difficult to leave the house without spending £100 and returning with very little to show for it. Despite this, there is still an expectation that wine is overpriced and inaccessible to the next generation. I read last year that the term “fine wine” should be abolished because it creates a veil of exclusivity that might stop a Barefoot drinker from levelling up. What I did not read was anyone arguing that “fine dining” should be abolished for creating an impenetrable ceiling between the drive-thru and a 12-course tasting menu.
Why is wine expected to be endlessly inclusive when not everyone wants to be included? Many contributors to Barefoot’s volume sales may not enjoy drier, more savoury wines, just as someone who enjoys a Sunday roast at popular restaurant chain Toby Carvery might not appreciate microscopic portions of edible flowers and foam at the Fat Duck?. And that is okay. Different tastes are what make wine interesting.
Often, the demand for cheaper wine comes from within the industry itself. I once met a chef patron who wanted a new supplier because “all my wine is disgusting”. Our wine was not disgusting, but it was around 10% more expensive, roughly 50p a bottle. Despite being 100% less disgusting, the price increase was a sticking point. He wanted better wine for the same price as the bad wine. We hit an impasse.
Later, I asked why he laboured so hard over food he was proud of if customers were washing it down with what he himself called disgusting wine. When we met again, two customers in my shop were overheard:
“Do you drink wine in pubs round here?”
“Not unless I want a headache for three days.”
He was aghast and exclaimed, “Is that what people really think?”
In many UK pubs and modest restaurants, people expect decent food but tolerate sub-standard wine without comment. Operators take advantage of this, opting for the cheapest possible list and congratulating themselves on the GP. But if no one buys the wine because it is rubbish, you end up pulling profitless pints. Treat customers with respect, curate the list properly, and wine becomes a profit centre.
If someone orders a burger, you would not serve them a McDonald’s cheeseburger and charge £18. So do not pour fast wine, charge a premium, and expect thanks or a second order.
The Drinks Business recently reported that only 8 to 12% of South African farms are profitable, with up to 43% operating at a loss. It is time hospitality drops the fast wine at low prices model and treats the wine list as a genuine revenue-generating asset. If your food menu aims for quality, your wine list should complement it, not contradict it.
So the next time you are served bad wine, wherever you are in the world, challenge it. Treat it the same way you would a bad plate of food. As long as operators think they can get away with it, they won’t change.
Oh, and the chef patron? He has been a customer for almost a decade. Two weeks after we took over the list, he was aghast again. Wine sales were flying. He swapped pennies from pulling pints for healthy profit from pulling corks. Turns out his pub was full of wine drinkers all along. They had just been avoiding his previous offering.
- Daniel Grigg has been a wine enthusiast since 18 and a wine professional since 23. While his peers were drinking brightly coloured Bacardi Breezers, he was discovering his palate — liking Syrah but not anything from Chile. He cut his teeth in independent retail, first at a former Threshers site with no sign or name, then at a former Nicolas store where all communications came by fax… in French. He has since been instrumental in establishing Museum Wines as one of the UK’s leading South African specialists, guiding them to Best Retailer for South Africa three years running in Decanter, and twice in the IWC.
-
Share:
Related articles
Opinion & Analysis
Daniel Grigg: Where have all the wine heroes gone?
28 January 2026
The wine industry is in crisis. Six words I read last year over and over again. But what is being done about it? Beyond the entreaties delivered with vegan-like vitriol...
GillesP | 25 February 2026
This is well put and the same applies to SA restaurant scene. Sadly, the restaurateurs prefer to sell cheap wines or when curating a decent t wine list the prices are outrageous, so nobody wins here because patrons won’t pay the prices or will stick to beer. Only exception I can name is Willoughby in Cape Town who probably works of 1.5 or 2 coefficient. There I order wine.
Daniel Grigg | 25 February 2026
I remember my first visit to SA in 2016 and being able to buy a good bottle in a restaurant for the equivalent of £8, even then that was what you’d pay for a glass of mediocre white in the UK.
Now not only have I noticed them taking a more European approach to mark ups but also there’s rarely anything interesting or exciting on the list that I actually want to drink which, for a country with the most interesting and exciting wines on the planet, is slightly ridiculous.
GillesP | 26 February 2026
Yes they have especially since Covid it got out of hand. Bear in mind many restaurants receive significant prize money for wine listings here and that is driven by the big wine companies , probably reluctantly, but they willing to entertain this non sense driven by greedy restaurant groups
Alan Glass | 25 February 2026
The wine mark up in restaurants is way too high, so I refuse to pay for a nice bottle of wine, but nor will I buy mass produced rubbish that is also over priced.
I often find SA wine sold in restaurants at higher mark up than European wine; I assume because the restaurant owner reckons the public may be persuaded, due to ignorance, by the price and the origin that they are buying something special, when that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Denise | 2 March 2026
Restaurants mark up the price of wine so high, and they make far more profit than the actual profit the wine estate makes. I really object to this. Yes, they have to provide glasses (in most cases, cheap glasses) storage and refrigeration. But they do not do all the hard work or take the loss like the wine estates have to!
Gareth | 25 February 2026
Wine in the UK is taxed to death! Those aussie guys from Bottle Shock on youtube recently did a whole video on it, recommended viewing.
In the Netherlands, you can buy something pretty decent from Europe for 12 euros, certainly better than Barefoot! Being part of the EU has its benefits, it seems…
Simon | 25 February 2026
The point that if you offer nicer wine, people might just drink it is well taken.
But another issue is that decent wine cannot be easily produced at scale. I rarely drink entry level wine – not because of uncompromising high standards, but because for the same money (or less), you can get a nice cold pint of lager. Outside of the US, even the blandest commercial brew is rarely less than satisfying.
If I didn’t drink beer and wanted a refreshing beverage with my fishfingers on a Tuesday night, I’d be tempted to resort to Yellow Tail with plenty of ice.
Daniel Grigg | 25 February 2026
Tenuta San Guido produce 180,000 bottles of Sassicaia each vintage, there are 9,000,000 bottles of Dom Perignon produced of any vintage released. Maintaining quality at scale is not impossible.
Futhermore, only big pub and restaurant groups rely on wines produced at scale for continuity of supply and support from those big brands. Independent pubs and restaurants can and should support fellow independent suppliers championing small scale producers. If they choose not to its likely because they’re complacent and/or they’ve relinquished jurisdiction of their wine list in return for a branded parasol or some other foible.
Simon | 26 February 2026
Ok, but 1.8 billion pints of Guinness are allegedly sold each year, and it doesn’t need two years in expensive French barrels before release. Though to be fair, I mean ‘mass produced’ rather than simply produced ‘at scale’.
The point is that casual punters tend to see the house merlot or pinot grigio as basically the same kind of beverage as a pint of San Miguel, which might be part of the reason owners want (or think they can get away with) “better wine for the same price as the bad wine.”
I agree that this is arguably not the optimal way to run a business.
Donald Griffiths | 27 February 2026
Bad food is harder to stomach than bad wine.
Les | 28 February 2026
The simple fact is that SA restaurant wine is totally overpriced – just take the ratio of a 300g steak vs a reasonably decent wine and it’s easily 2 to 3 to one. Restaurants make their money on alcohol so they use the same markup % for wine as for hard liquor, hence consumers (who do not know better) end up with crap wine because it’s all they can afford.
It’s a vicious spiral and will only change when restaurants realise a person may drink a shot or two of hard liquor, but they will also easily drink at least a bottle of wine (or two). Hence they will make their money on volume and not mark-up.
Cut the margins on wine and see cusomters coming back for more.
Tim Parsons | 28 February 2026
I thought the whole point of a glass of wine with friends was to enjoy conviviality, ambience and rely upon expertise. There’s a big difference between a wine bar and a restaurant and, I would suggest, wine bar prices are not as extreme and the atmosphere more convivial, than today’s restaurants. Restaurants spend fortunes on cutlery, crockery, interior design, kitchen etc but, diddly squat on acoustics, which means most of them are not enjoyable places to socialise and hang out as we listen to some member of staff’s random Spotify playlist at high volume! These, often, extravagant costs drive the need for 3x mark up. That’s the tail wagging the dog and the restauranteur cannot complain. Invariably, in a wine bar you can even hear the sommelier, or waitron, make suggestions as to a wine you might like! Guess what, you drink more and more selectively. It’s the ambience and sense of place that has a huge impact on what you choose to drink, surely?