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- kman - 08-25-1999

I am opening a new restaurant and would like to make sure that my waitstaff know about the different wines we are serving. Can anyone tell where I can get info on the different tastes of wines (I am not a wine drinker). Some of our wines include: Mondavi Woodbridge Cabernet, Ecco Domami Pinot Grigio, Brolio Chinuti Classico, Napa Ridge Pinot Noir, B&G Graves, Mondavi Stags Leap Cabernet, Beringer Red Zin, and Korbel Chard Champagne. These are just a few. Any help you could give me would be GREATLY appreciated


- Jerry D Mead - 08-25-1999

First off, get your wholesale suppliers to come in and conduct some tasting seminars for the entire staff...make it MANDATORY that everyone attend.

As quickly as possible, try to identify someone on your staff who knows more about wine than the others and place them in charge of the wine list and staff training...it has to be an ongoing thing... as people turn over, as new wines come in.

Also pop for a couple of basic books that your people can use for reference guides and maybe subscribe to a wine magazine or two to keep yourself and your new wine manager up to date on new trends.

This is important, because wine should be an important profit center for you restaurant if handled and promoted properly.

JDM


- Randy Caparoso - 08-26-1999

If this is your restaurant, and you are licensed to sell wine, then you have no excuses if wine sales are poor due to lack of staff knowledge. Not only are distributors more than happy to come in and present wines to your staff (their cost!), you are also required to educate yourself.

The fact that you've checked in with the wineboard is good. There are also some excellent publications available oriented specifically for restaurateurs. I strongly recommend Restaurant Wine magazine (www.winetaste.com; e-mail, restwine@winetaste.com), written and published by Ronn Wiegand, MW/MS. Also look into Sante - The Magazine of Restaurant Wine & Spirits Management (e-mail, santevin@sover.net). Of course, general interest publications like Wine Spectator, Wines & Spirits, and Curmudgeon's own Wine Trader are excellent sources to help you keep abreast of market interests and trends. If you subscribe and read all of them from cover to back, you'll soon be able to talk about wine as comfortably as anyone. Guaranteed!

Finally, you need some basic texts. I've been in the restaurant business since 1974, and I still use them. Just today one of my restaurant managers asked me to speak to his staff on a 20 Year Old Moscatel de Setubal. I couldn't remember everything, so I was immediately on the phone calling my home and asking my wife to look up Setubal in the Oxford Companion to Wine (edited by Jancis Robinson), by far the most complete and authoritative encyclopedic book available today. Armed with this last minute information, I was able to give a good accounting of myself.

Another super-basic book is Hugh Johnson's The World Atlas of Wine. The third most essential book you can buy is Jancis Robinson's Vines, Grapes and Wines, a great source of information on wine varietals. The finest book on the art of wine tasting (and thus a great tool for preparing to lead staff tastings) is still Michael Broadbent's Wine Tasting.

Order any of these books through your nearest Borders, Barnes & Noble or local bookstore. The books and periodicals that I've talked about adds up to about a $350 outlay, but the return that you'll get in sales (especially if you encourage your staff to do the same) would be a far, far better thing than you've ever done before.

Okay? Good luck!


- Thomas - 08-27-1999

I would like to add something to the above that many new (and old) restaurateurs gloss over: wine is a profit center. You should know as much about it as you do about the food you buy and sell.

Do not overcharge for wine--price it with the idea of volume sales in mind.

Do not select wines that have little to do with your menu, i.e. more Cabernet Sauvignon than Sauvignon Blanc in a seafood restaurant specializing in fresh, light dishes.

Do not rely on one or two major distributors as your only source for product.


- RickBin389 - 08-27-1999

Good point Foodie, ....but,depending on the size & volume of your list - you may have to limit the number of distribs you use....Most of the big houses have equally appealing brands - to little ole me ,it comes down to the knowledge, honesty & helpfulness of the sales rep.

Be wary of the guy (gal) that trashes his competition and bullies his way around your list ( a good wine rep realizes his offerings change on a yearly basis & respects good wine regardless of who sells it) - and remember ,Kman ,that as long as you are ripe - you are exposed. Taste, taste, taste and taste again - develope your palate.

Of course ,the rules change if you are in an ABC state.

The advice on this thread regarding reading suggestions are excellent - I would add the Sotheby's wine encyclopedia(Tom Stevenson).

Good luck Kman.

[This message has been edited by RickBin389 (edited 08-27-99).]


- Randy Caparoso - 08-28-1999

Your advice on picking wines to match your menu is sound, foodie; but as usual, you're offering your typical outsider's perspective on markups. Getting into trouble there; especially since the poor guy asked about knowledge, not about how he should run his program. Wine is a "profit center," but in potentially so many different ways.

The fact is, markups depend upon what you're offering as a whole. So if you're a simple, casual restaurant, offering more or less average food (meaning, you don't exactly have a three, or even one, star chef), then it is perfectly appropriate to sell, say, a Voss Merlot (which usually retails for around $18) for about $23-$25. Reasonable enough.

But if you're a restaurant like Emeril's, or a Rubicon, Le Bernardin, or Charlie Trotter's, which employs three sommeliers each, provides white table cloths, crystal glassware, and is serving world class food, then it is just as reasonable to be selling Voss Merlot for about $39-$40. The ironic thing is, you can't make the blanket statement that you'll be more successful selling for lower prices; especially since these fancy, high priced restaurants are selling far more wine, to far larger numbers of appreciative guests.

Not that I want to get into that same ol' restaurant markup battle. I believe it's been covered in this forum already. I'm just asking you to give a little leeway to individual restaurateurs when it comes to how they should actually be running their business. Common sense, as opposed to cut-and-dried "rules."

[This message has been edited by Randy Caparoso (edited 08-28-99).]


- Thomas - 08-28-1999

Perhaps the term I used, volume sales, misleads--if a long-time restaurateur like Randy misunderstands it than maybe a new restaurateur will too.

Volume sales means the fastest, inventory turn around your establishment can profitably sustain.

If it is a "high-class" rest. with sommeliers, and the like, you might get volume sales with inflated prices because that is what the customer is willing to pay. If your rest. is more low-end, then you best stay away form the high-priced wines as a normal mode and stick with medium or low priced.

Volume sales is not a term for low-end selling; it is a concept for all consumer businesses. The extent of the volume is dictated by the size and type of your business.


- Randy Caparoso - 08-28-1999

Sounds fair enough. I'm definitely into "volume," by the way; although in the restaurant business we just call it turnover. I prefer -- and always get -- monthly sales that are at least twice the amount of end-of-the-month inventories; and I do it with bottle prices largely in the $25-$85 range. Never really understood why restaurateurs (including many esteemed colleagues) would accept anything less. It's a business, is it not?

But for kman, I have one final suggestion: besides teaching yourself and your staff, do try to bring your wine program up to snuff. The wines you mentioned are distinctly average in quality, but below average in pizzaz. You won't exactly light up the sky with those choices, which means you'll also have trouble keeping your staff (not to mention yourself) excited about things in the long run. So it won't matter how much inventory you carry, how much volume you achieve, and how much or how little you do your markup. As with menu items and service personnel, quality starts with the selection.
Plus, having an exciting, innovative selection certainly does not have to cost any money. I've seen it done with wine lists with as little as 10 selections, inventory costs below a $1000, yet monthly sales of over $10,000 -- talk about volume!