Ask Tom

"My husband and I recently dined at Timpano in Rockville," Maxine Brown writes. "We knew we were going to order steak and knew we wanted a pinot noir. I asked the waiter for a recommendation, and he suggested Wild Horse pinot noir 2006," listed for $60. "This was a birthday celebration," Brown continues, "so we thought, why not?" The wine, she says, was great, prompting her husband to look for the label the next day at the county liquor store, where he found the bottle -- for $20. "My question is, why was it $60 at Timpano?" Brown asks. "That price will keep us away from a fine restaurant now."

Like a lot of the competition, Timpano marks up its wine to about three times the wholesale cost, explains the restaurant's assistant general manager, Susan Spiwak. Liquor typically gets the highest markup in a restaurant, she says, but wine profits are "pretty substantial," too. Her defense: Wine drinkers aren't paying just for the liquid, she says, but also for proper storage, handling and labor. At Timpano, $45,000 worth of wine is stowed in temperature-controlled cabinets, and the delicate 22-ounce Bordeaux glasses that decorate each place setting are washed by hand. What's more, she says, on its busiest three nights of the week, the Italian restaurant pays for a "polisher," whose sole job is to keep the stemware clean and sparkling.

Got a dining question? Send your thoughts, wishes and, yes, even gripes to asktom@washpost.com or to Ask Tom, The Washington Post Magazine, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Please include a daytime telephone number.