The sommelier may wax lyrical about the full body and subtle aromas of that Old World red. But beware: while the wine will undoubtedly complement your beef carpaccio, knowledge of the restaurant’s mark-up could make all but the richest City traders balk. Even worse, the eatery around the corner is selling the same wine at half the price.

Research has revealed the astonishing profits made by the country’s top restaurants on bottles from their cellars and the wide variation in prices between them.

While, at the top end of the market, a bottle of 1964 Petrus Pomerol Bordeaux will cost diners at the Gordon Ramsay restaurant in Chelsea £2,100, at the Dorchester Grill, only a short taxi ride away, the same vintage will set you back £5,000.

The study also showed that a bottle of Special Cuvée champagne costs £90 at the two Michelin star Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons in Oxford, but it would only be £58 at the equally highly commended Gidleigh Park restaurant in Devon. At the Majestic Wine Warehouse you can buy two bottles of this nonvintage Bollinger for £53.98.

The price differential in all cases is enhanced by the often obligatory 12.5 per cent service charge.

Wine critics said it was only wines at the very top end of the market that could justify such high mark-ups. Malcolm Gluck said there should be a £10 cap for most wines. Chris Losh, a former editor of Wine Magazine, said: “The best restaurateurs are the ones that buy their wines early and sit on them until they are ready to drink.”

Representatives of the Dorchester Hotel expressed astonishment when told of the difference in price of the 1964 Petrus between it and Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant. A spokesman said: “He must have bought it a long time ago: you would not now be able to buy one on the open market for that price.”

Jason McAuliffe, the head of wine at the hotel, defended its policy, saying they offered 30 wines priced under £30.

A spokesman at Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons restaurant said that diners were paying for more than the wine.

The author of the research, Martin Isark, a food and drink taster, said: “It discourages experimentation and dampens enthusiasm for trading-up.

“At the high-end it seems that some restaurateurs are of the arrogant assumption that their customers are happy to pay thousands of pounds over and above the retail price.

“There’s no doubt that great food enhances the pleasure of drinking wine but it can sour when you realise that a restaurant down the road of similar quality is selling it hundreds and sometimes thousands of pounds cheaper.”

The big spenders on big rounds

- Six City dealers at Barclays Capital spent £44,000 on a dinner at Gordon Ramsay’s Petrus restaurant in London in October 2001. They ordered a 1982 Montrachet costing £1,400, and three bottles of Petrus Pomerol: the 1945 at £11,600, the 1946 at £9,400, and the 1947 at £12,300. A dessert wine costing £9,200 completed the refreshments. Mr Ramsay let them have their £400 meal for nothing

- In February the world’s top chefs and wines were flown to Bangkok for a meal described as the most expensive ever. The 30 people, who each paid £15,272 plus tax and service, were served a £5,000-a-bottle claret, a 1995 Krug and a 1961 Chateau Palmer described as “one of the greatest red wines ever”

- At the Movida basement club off Oxford Street in Central London a “premium customer” spent £89,000 on drinks in one night, including two rare methuselahs of Cristal champagne costing £24,000 each. The unnamed customer gave one to the former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, who was in the club

- One night last year at the same venue London’s super-rich Russians and Germans engaged in a battle for drinks supremacy with their English counterparts. Eamonn Mulholland, the bar owner, described it as being “like the World Cup” as the competing nations bought jeroboams of Cristal champagne, costing £4,500 a bottle. Each bottle was brought out accompanied with a ceremonial musical fanfare: Kalinka for the Russians, Rule Britannia for the British and the Star Wars theme for the Germans. Unusually, the Germans lost

- Last year the Chelsea captain John Terry, left, ran up a £30,000 bar bill at the Elysium nightclub in the West End after hosting a party for teammates

Source: Times database

The full list of restaurant wine mark-ups

Non-vintage Bollinger Special Cuvee champagne

Fat Duck at Bray, (3 star Michelin) £90

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons (2 star Michelin), Great Milton Oxford, £90

Midsummer House, (2 star Michelin), Cambridgeshire, £90

Chewton Glen, Hampshire, £88

Lindsay House, Richard Corrigan (1 Michelin Star), Soho, £85

Savoy Grill, (1 star Michelin ), Strand, London, £80

Simpsons Restaurant (1 star Michelin) Birmingham, £77

Dorchester Hotel, Grill Menu, Park Lane, £75.50

Chez Bruce, (1 star Michelin) London, £68

Number One at the Balmoral Hotel (1 star Michelin), Edinburgh, £65

The Square Restaurant (2 star Michelin ), Mayfair, £65

Langan’s Brasserie, Mayfair, £62

Kettners Restaurant Soho, £59.50

Gidleigh Park, (2 star Michelin), Devon, £58

Ransomes Dock Restaurant, London £55

1995 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons (2 star Michelin), Milton, Oxford, £255

Midsummer House, (2 star Michelin), Cambridgeshire, £230

Simpsons Restaurant ( 1 star Michelin) Birmingham, £191

Savoy Grill, (1 star Michelin ), Strand, London, £185

The Square Restaurant (2 star Michelin ), Mayfair, (97 vintage), £185

Dorchester Hotel Grill Menu, (98 vintage) £169

Chez Bruce, ( 1 star Michelin), London, £155

Kettners Restaurant, Soho, £145

The Ivy, (98 vintage), London, £90

1987/89/91 Vega Sicilia, ‘Unico’, Ribero del Duero, Spain

Midsummer House, (2 star Michelin), Cambridgeshire, 1991 (to buy £122.20), £310

The Ivy 1991 (to buy £122.20 today), £155

Sat Bains, (1 star Michelin), Nottingham, 1987, (to buy today £140) £568

Simpsons Restaurant (1 Michelin Star), Birmingham, 1987, (to buy today £140), £290

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons (2 star Michelin), Oxon, 1989 (to buy £164.50) , £455

Midsummer House, (2 star Michelin), Cambridgeshire, 1989 (to buy £164.50) , £450

Dorchester Grill Restaurant List, 1989, (to buy today £164.50) £354

Chez Bruce, 1989, (to buy £164.50 today) £205

1964 Petrus Pomerol Bordeaux

Gordon Ramsay, (3 Michelin Stars) Chelsea, (to buy today£2425), £2100

Dorchester Hotel Grill Restaurant, Park Lane, (to buy today £2425) £5000

Explore Food & Drink

• Gordon Ramsay

• Heston Blumenthal

• Recipes

• Wine

• Real Food

• Drinks

• Anjum Anand

• Eating Out

• Video Recipes

Times Recommends

• Top 10 fish and chip shops
• Ice cream makers: the scoop of the century
• British berries make super sorbets