Interesting. I was just trying to persuade our winemaker of the virtues of small bottles yesterday. He's not convinced they'd sell, and there's a higher cost-per-gallon involved.

Thanks for offering a little support for the cause.

Thanks for the comment. I can understand your winemaker's position, and can easily believe that the bottling costs are higher for smaller formats. I also don’t think they probably sell very well, despite my comments. But on the other hand, I would expect margins to be higher on them? That may be naïve of me, but that's what I would guess. Perhaps the two offset each other.

I really like half bottles, as my post suggests, but it seems like they are much more common in Europe than here in the US. Perhaps its just a matter of time?

Sounds like our state's wineries would be well served by stocking more half bottles.

Ps: I quoted you briefly on my own weblog. I tried that trackback thing, but I don't think I did it right.

I am curious why you think it is a bad business idea or model. I to am intrigued by the notion of selling half bottles over the internet. I would focus most of my energy however on being a distributer that deals exclusively in half bottles that would be marketed to large hotel chains and restaurants.

The margins on half bottles are very small, much smaller than regular bottles, and I think the consumer demand would not support even an online retail operation. Perhaps your idea of making businesses your main customers would be a better route to go.

Hi there! Thanks for the tip on your site about places with half bottles...I work near Burlingame so I stumbled into Weimax. Great selection of half bottles and I enjoyed a visit to their tasting room, too! (They had a Harrington Pinot Noir which I rather liked, along with Long Vineyards Chardonnay and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.)

And the crew there gave me some tips on some wines under $10 which I found to be really amazing and priced about what I had wanted to pay for a half bottle of wine. I got a dry white from Gascogne, a Cotes du Rhone for $6.99 which was good, a couple of five dollar Spanish reds which were surprisingly good and a good Pinot Gris for $4.99!

Thanks for mentioning this place! I am bringing a friend there this coming weekend for some tasting.

I bought 6 cases of half bottles for my graduation in 2003 through windsor vinyard. They no longer offer the 375ml size - much to my dismay because I am in the market for another 6 cases!!

I'm all in favor of half bottles. I drink one glass at max per sitting!

What an interesting blog to stumble over! I am sorry I didn't get here a year ago. I am a principal of The Half-Bottle Wine Club and all of you bear out my basic idea that the half-bottle is the best way to explore for wines and enjoy a good wine when dining singly. We have a great and ever-growing portfolio of half-bottles and our wine club is, to our knowledge, the only club shipping half-bottles each month. Our website is in the process of being moved onto a more professional and easy to manage e-commerce platform but please drop in and look around: www.e-halfbottle.com - and please sign up for our newsletter -or even join the club! And please drop me an email of your own half-bottle experiences. We are always looking for new stories of the ubiquitous 375ml bottle.

Thank you, this is a great blog. My wife and I enjoy half bottles very much, and find it difficult to find good varieties. As far as the pricing issue goes, go to Wallmart and you'll find something that costs five times more or less than it took to produce on every shelf... I don't have to tell you that classical economics have been out the window for a while. Your business success--I can tell you from experience--will have nothing to do with bottling costs going from 750 - 375 ml, or the smaller volume as that relates to real wine drinkers. Sure, the wine maker will be concerned with these costs and practicalities, but those are nothing more than abstractions to a determined entrepreneur. The online dealer should have no trouble carving out a niche. Image is perhaps more important than whether you sell to individual clients online or to businesses directly. Can you recommend a smooth-finishing, good mouth feel cabernet in half bottles? Thanks again.

Chris,

Thanks for the comments. Try the half bottles of the Cabernet I just reviewed today, called Parallel. You may find it to your taste.

This jogged my memory to an ad in the back of WS for halfwitwines.com -- very large and worldwide selection.

Thanks for the mention of HalfWitWines.com. We took the plunge and are offering an extensive selection of half bottles of wine--only half bottes--at our site.

It's a tough business but there is an untapped demand. We're warehousing (temperature controlled, of course) about 1000 different wines.

Wish us luck!