Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurant Pétrus has defended a £10,200 mark-up on the wine from which the restaurant takes its name.
The 1928 vintage Pétrus is available from wine retailer Bordeaux Index at £1,395 a bottle, an eighth of the £11,600 price the restaurant charges its diners.
Assistant sommelier Roshani Palamakumbura denied that the wine was excessively priced, saying that customers were paying for a guarantee that the wine had been properly stored and served.
She added that most wines in the restaurant were subject to a 50% mark-up.
Massive mark-ups at Pétrus and other top-quality restaurants including The Greenhouse in Mayfair and Le Manoir auz Quat’ Saisons in Oxfordshire, were uncovered this month in a survey by Decanter magazine.
The Daily Telegraph 29/6/06 page 3