Hi guys,
here at the store we have some half bottles either white or red or champagne but the problems for me to buy them and being able to sell them are various.
First the distributors they don't want to carry strange formats, either half bottles or magnums or double magnums because they're more difficult to sell.
Second I still have to find a half bottle that has a cost equal to the 50% of a regular bottle. I've been told that glass, cork label costs are almost the same as for a regular bottle so the distributor cannot charge half the price of a regular bottle for these.
Third a wine in a half bottle do not ages as well as in a regular bottle or better, in a larger format. So you can find half bottles of nice wines already past their peak in half the time that it would take for a regular bottle.
In addition, we sell mostly italian wines and italian producers seem not to care too much about half bottles right now. It is really hard for me to be able to offer my customers with a variety of half bottles.