Wines by the glass - you can do better.

"Do you carry this wine that I had by the glass at so and so restaurant"?  We get this question a lot here at The Market. Usually the answer is no, followed by:  but I have something better. And usually the person does not take the recommendation and walks out of the store with nothing, continuing their quest for that "magical" wine that they had at the restaurant.
By the time most restaurants pour a glass and a half of wine, they've recovered the cost of the bottle. So that means, that to keep wines by the glass reasonably priced ($8-$10), restaurants have to select wines that would typically sell at retail for $12 - $18 per bottle. I'm not saying you're getting bad wine when you buy a glass at a restaurant, but it's definitely going to be in the "value" category, or else you will be paying much more per glass. That's just how things work in the restaurant industry.
So what's the moral of this story? First, don't get hung up on that wine you had by the glass at the restaurant. And second, if you do ask about the wine at your favorite wine store (hopefully that's The Wine Market), you will take the recommendation from your local wine guru, and enjoy a much better wine at a reasonable price.

Tom