What is it with White Zin ?

I raised this question a few years ago on this board. Now the "problem" is becoming more pronounced. More and more of our favorite restaurants have dropped white Zinfandel from their wine list. Now you can add Uptown Cafe to the list in addition to J. Alexander's and Blackstone Grille. It doesn't matter to me but it is my wife's favorite adult beverage, so much so, that it's a deal breaker if a restaurant doesn't serve it. The usual excuse offered by the restaurants is that "it's not that popular". What ? Why does every liquor store have rows and rows of the stuff if it's not that popular ? My guess is it has something to do with profit margins and shelf space. Thoughts please...thanks

Mark,
My guess is it's an issue of popularity, not profit. At a restaurant, once they open a bottle they only have a couple of days to use the opened wine. If no one else orders, it can become very expensive for the restaurant. This isn't a problem for retail.
Deb

I raised this question a few years ago on this board. Now the "problem" is becoming more pronounced. More and more of our favorite restaurants have dropped white Zinfandel from their wine list. Now you can add Uptown Cafe to the list in addition to J. Alexander's and Blackstone Grille. It doesn't matter to me but it is my wife's favorite adult beverage, so much so, that it's a deal breaker if a restaurant doesn't serve it. The usual excuse offered by the restaurants is that "it's not that popular". What ? Why does every liquor store have rows and rows of the stuff if it's not that popular ? My guess is it has something to do with profit margins and shelf space. Thoughts please...thanks

I havent see rows of it in Old Town in the Highlands.

Alcohol like everything else, especially fashion, has fads. First it was white zin, and then merlot. Now both have fallen out of favor as most wine drinkers pallets have become more refined or companies simply push new or different products.

I raised this question a few years ago on this board. Now the "problem" is becoming more pronounced. More and more of our favorite restaurants have dropped white Zinfandel from their wine list. Now you can add Uptown Cafe to the list in addition to J. Alexander's and Blackstone Grille. It doesn't matter to me but it is my wife's favorite adult beverage, so much so, that it's a deal breaker if a restaurant doesn't serve it. The usual excuse offered by the restaurants is that "it's not that popular". What ? Why does every liquor store have rows and rows of the stuff if it's not that popular ? My guess is it has something to do with profit margins and shelf space. Thoughts please...thanks

I'll bite and give my opinion. I am sure the real reasons are based on sales figures.

From the liquor retailers perspective. Every single large scale winemaker makes a white Zin. Like with below premium beer (Busch, natty, mil best) customers are very budget minded and brand loyal. They will insist that they can tell the difference between them. Thus liquor stores stock a wide variety of them.

I wouldn't expect to find Busch/natty/old Milwaukee at a nicer restaurant. White Zin is getting the same treatment.

Blackstone Grille still has White Zinfandel.