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Insights

Sommelier’s Insights on Creating a Wine List

The wine list reflects the strength of a wine bar or restaurant. Read this article to know more about what sommeliers keep in mind while creating a wine list.

Merchandise is the fundamental concept at the outset of any business. Representing your merchandise to your consumers is not as effortless as it seems when someone speaks about it. It is even more focused and consumed job when it comes to choosing wine for the wine list at a restaurant or a wine bar. Curating a list of wines that is both sellable and profitable is the key responsibility of any sommelier working at a bar or restaurant.

From the sommeliers’ point of view, the best and the mission-driven wine list is where the customers can find perfect companionship between the food and wine. However, LWC believes that more things prevail at the bottom line of creating a wine list. Customers also pay attention to details like price, age, grape, place and texture of wine to make certain that they are getting the best of what they are paying. So, it is an advisable practice to divide the wine list into categories that feature above stated varieties. It makes the wine list more organized and easy to compare and understand.

LWC interviewed some of the top sommeliers and wine directors and conserved very important insights from them to share it with every wine enthusiast.

Sharyn Kervyn - Wine Director, Capital Grille

Sharyn Kervyn is a Certified Specialist of Wine and a sommelier, responsible for maintaining the Wine Spectator’s best of award-winning wines’ list.

When I look back at my first wine list some 30 years ago the basic rules applied:  list wines from light to full body and separate them by a variety and/or country.  Today, with modern technology, these rules no longer apply, but every now and then I still see the paper list when dining out, varying in degrees of accuracy and selection.  As for me, I do miss my paper wine lists; my favourite included brief descriptions of each wine and an accompanying book displaying the labels for guests to browse through.

Today more and more wine lists are on an IPad, a wonderful tool that provides everything you need to know about the wines, along with the ability to email you the notes to remember the bottle.  These IPads are a fantastic selling tool, not only for wine but also for menu items, spirits and any promotions you might be running.  The visual stimulus alone is enough to make you over order!  With this technology, the traditional rules don’t apply, because the IPad sorts the wines, however, the guest chooses light to full body, country, varietal, price, rating, vintage and more.  So what’s left for the Wine Director?

I am a Wine Director with this type of IPad list, and my challenge is to maintain the Wine Spectator “Best of” award-winning wine list while simultaneously lowering inventory to keep in line with overhead.  I work in a high-end steakhouse, so I focus on our menu to make sure I have a broad selection offering food friendly pairings, with a mix of boutique and large producers.  Also, in order to maintain the award, I need to ensure depth of the list.  In other words, have more than the main regions represented by substantial verticals (multiple vintages of the same wine) and horizontals (several offerings from the same winery).

This modern wine list, though full of advantages, still leaves me missing my old paper list.  It took me some time to realize what it was I was missing.  I realized it was the tactile sensation of flipping through the pages of that paper list.  This is the difference between the IPad books or paperbacks.  I will always be a paperback person deep down!

Indeed, it is an era of digitization. What was there on papers a few years back is now available on the internet which is accessible on all the digital mediums. Hence, what is put on the wine list spreads worldwide awareness, either in terms of positive reputation or negative reputation.

Here is what Vincenzo Arnese, the Head Sommelier & Wine Buyer at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, says about creating a wine list.

''Built a wine List is a very delicate operation, it’s not only an extensive number of label and vintages on a piece of paper. A lot is about the contest, so you must take the time to identify your environment and even more important you must classify your guest.

After the collection of enough information, you will need to find and purchase quality wines that match your specific requirements, so to be a good wine buyer, you must have a vast knowledge of wine and understand current industry trends, and also you must have excellent communication skills to be able to negotiate with wine suppliers.

It’s always important to meet your supplier to taste the wine, understand what is behind every bottle, like this, you will be able to transfer your knowledge and your passion to your staff and guest.

Price is also very important, we need to remember that a restaurant is a company that should make a profit but you must create a price that is fair with the quality of the product that you list. A wine list need also to be complete for every range of price, from low to high, and with a diverse style of wine.''

So, we are carrying out a few points about creating wine list, which are beneficial for any wine bar or restaurants if followed mindfully.

 --- Find the length of menu according to the branding and the varietals to be offered.

 --- Bifurcate the wines to be sold as by-the-bottle and by-the-glass.

 --- Decide pricing strategies.

 --- Does it make sense to offer Australian wine with Italian food?

 --- Keep a good balance between the varieties pon in the list.

 --- Have a range of price points and keep several selections for every price point.

 --- Add some wines that people never heard of.

 --- Offer food that can be paired with wines.

This is not all that a good wine list consists of, but certainly, a helping hand that can make significant changes to the wine list creation techniques.

We appreciate changes and updates and we will keep adding more useful stuff into this article. More interviews are coming soon, so stay tuned with LWC to get more information on similar topics.

International and Domestic Submission deadline is February 22. If you are looking to grow your brand in 2024, looking for product feedback, or looking to get in front of real trade buyers. It's time to enter your wines in the London Competitions. Here's how to enter.

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