Mastering the wine list.

Of all the mysteries a restaurant wine list may hold, one of the most intriguing is the price structure. does a wine that sells for $10 in a retail shop become a $20 or $25 wine in a restaurant?

The normal markup for wine in fine restaurants is two and one-half times the wholesale price. But according to Steve Fox, a restaurant wine consultant in Richmond, Va., "Not every restaurateur figures it that way. Savvier ones mark up the lower-end wines more, which allows them to mark down the higher-priced wines." That way, the restaurant sells more wine, and the diner can afford a better wine. Let's say a bottle of Veuve Cliquot Champagne is listed at $75 on a normal markup. It might be marked down to

Another, more prudent, approach is to add only $1 or $2 above normal markup to wines under $20, since you know you will always make sales there, and mark down your higher@ end wines. There are also restaurants that take a lower markup on all wines in order to sell more.

Are these markup schemes fair to the diner? Consider that most foods in a restaurant are marked up three times their cost, while spirits are marked up five to six times.

Still, for the informed diner, there are always good buys to be had. Among the wines Fox recommends are reds from Chile and Argentina, particularly Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot; Australian wines such as Shiraz among reds, Chardonnay among whites; reds from France's Languedoc-Roussillon region; Italian reds such as Dolcetto and Barbera; and Pinot Blanc from nearly anywhere.

Madeline Triffon, the wine buyer and sommelier at the Rattlesnake Club in Detroit, feels there are good buys in South African wines, both red and white; and in Barbera and Zinfendel from California. She recommends California wines made of Viognier, a white grape of the Rhone region. "They are not necessarily inexpensive, but they are good buys for the money, and very flavorful and exotic alternatives to Chardonnay," she says.

"In general, look for the most obscure wines on a fine wine list for the best buys. Those from the south of France, for instance, are often gems," Triffon notes. But sometimes the most obvious can turn out to be a good buy as well. "Chianti Classico 1990 was a wonderful vintage in Tuscany," she says, "and they are still available in restaurants - some great ones, in fact, for about $20, $25."

What should one not order? "Whatever is hot," Triffon advises. "Merlot is hot right now, so a good one will be expensive.

"The diner who loses," Fox believes, "is the one who buys the cheapest wine on the list because the percentage of the markup is often the highest. On the other hand, the person who just buys the most expensive wine on the list shows no imagination. There are great buys on any good list. You have only to search them out."