Gordon Ramsay, Bruce Willis, Australia, re-fi — sipped and spit

SPIT: paying bills
A few years ago, the New Yorker profile of Gordon Ramsay let drop the nugget that wine was the real profit center at The London. Now, in what is a sign of different times, two New York wine distributors, Wineberry and VOS Selections, have sued Gordon Ramsay’s The London for about $40,000 each for wines sold to the restaurant. The new “F” word: finances? [NY Post but see also Grub Street for Jamie Oliver’s taunting of Gordon Ramsay.)

SPIT: red wine stain remover
Bruce Willis has also been sued over wine, in this instance, for returning a rug with red wine stains in it. Bruce, here are some suggestions for the next time: white wine, salt, Wine Away, hydrogen peroxide and dishsoap. Willis denies the spill happened while the rug was in his possession. [TMZ]

SIPPED: controversy down under
An Adelaide business paper publishes a scathing opinion column on the state of the Australian wine industry, using the lens of the National Wine Centre of Australia.

SIPPED: fashionista box wine
Vanity Fair discovers box wine. Will it soon be available for Gwenyth, Gordon & Co at The Waverly Inn?

SIPPED: new terms
Southern Wine & Spirits, the wholesaler with $8 billion in revenues according to Forbes, seeks to restructure $2 billion in debt.

7 Responses to “Gordon Ramsay, Bruce Willis, Australia, re-fi — sipped and spit”


  1. I wonder how much of the $2 billion they will spend on lobbying state and federal legislators.


  2. Well Gordon’s Cape Town restaurant, Maze is choca block packed with South African wine… so have a feeling the vino’s the ‘real profit maker’ there too 🙂


  3. Tyler,

    Wine is always the profit center for these restaurants, it’s totally a rip off. The worst part is that most of the time the wine list is really cr-p, overpriced and often doesn’t pair too well with the food.

    I have to say starting about 4-5 years ago, we started going mainly to restuarants that allow BYOB with a corkage fee. Most have been reasonable, but even the ones that were $35 were worth it when you look at the QPR ration of the wines we brought vs. the price/quality of the meal vs. what we would have paid had those wines been available on their wine list or if we had had to buy wine from the list that we would not have enjoyed very much and felt ripped off at the same time.

    PS: At the higher end restaurants whgen we typically go with friends and bring several wines we often ask the server and chef if they’d like to try the wines and have had the chef come out to comment on our pairings and even once they provided an additional cheese course as a thank you which was wonderful with our dessert wine. The waitress got a great tip and it was a win win for everyone.

    This works great if the goal is education/enjoyment and profit, as opposed to just profit.


  4. […] Via. […]


  5. Poor Gordon… those pesky bills.


  6. Gary,

    Yes, long live reasonable markups and good BYOBs/gentle corkage!


  7. Bruce Willis…..wow….that is pretty bad.


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