Wine List Reveals That Restaurants Made Waaaaay Less Money On Wine In 1977

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“It just fell out of an old cookbook,” he said, laughing. Lee had been at a friend's house looking though old cookbooks when they came upon one that was a gift from 610’s original owner, Eddie Garber. While paging through the dusty edition, a wine list slipped out — a Beaujolais-stained, typeset time capsule and a snapshop of what the most affluent Louisville residents drank during the Carter Administration, and for how much. Apparently, they drank fine wines relatively affordably.

Using a the CPI Inflation calculator, the $15 bottle in 1977 would in today's economy cost $59. According to Walsh, a bottle of Meursault would probably be “at least 10 times” the 1977 price at New York City restaurant The Dutch, where he currently serves as Beverage Director. So, a third of today's relative cost.

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“At that time [the ownership] just wanted people to simply drink wine,” he says, adding that they also sold wine for $1.50 a glass (less than $6 per glass in today’s money).

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