Wine by the glass
Hoteliers would be cutting their own throats not to serve wine by the glass’, exclaims Julie Bonner, manager of the perennially busy O’Connell’s Hotel in South Melbourne. I agree. Why, then, do so many hotels refuse to do it?
Is it because their managers are worried about what to with half-empty bottles? Is it because some think it’s harder to make a decent margin this way? Is it because they are scared of their image? Is it because they don’t know which wines to serve this way? Or is it because it’s all just too plain difficult? If any of these concerns come close to ringing a bell, do read on.
Serving wine by the glass is not simply a matter of addressing the fistful of potential difficulties suggested above. It’s more about creating strong positives, such as providing customers with more choice, service and reason to patronise your hotel. It’s about offering a product that requires little, if any work or cost to serve, to increase bar and restaurant trade and margins. It’s also about taking advantage of opportunities presented by wine distributors who are keen to encourage hotels to offer their wine – and not just their cheap wine – by the glass.
Wine by the glass presents patrons with new and exciting possibilities to sample different wines throughout a meal. ‘It’s great to give people the option’, says Julie Bonner. ‘People have the chance to try new wines and experiment, although a lot of people will still buy whole bottles in the hotel restaurant.’
Offered by the glass, wine becomes an alternative to beer or a mixed drink while standing around the bar. Tim Bolch, owner of South Melbourne’s Limerick Arms Hotel, says a growing number of men are drinking wine by the glass at his bar because they think beer puts on too much weight.
The Limerick Arms sells almost as much wine per litre as beer, because, says Tim Bolch, it’s offered by the glass. ‘At least half our wine sales and about 90 of wine sales over the bar are by the glass. It’s about half and half in our restaurant. We sell about 30 cases of house white per month.
‘There’s no doubt we sell much more wine because of wine by glass. I can’t understand why more hotels don’t do it’, he says.
Michael Lee, owner of The Argo in the inner Melbourne suburb of Prahran, says that people regularly drop by for a glass of house red or white. ‘It’s expected of us as a hotel. We do more than the average pub through the quality and range we present and we call ourselves a wine bar. We wanted that to be a focus of our business’, he says.
There’s no reason why hotels shouldn’t make more money by selling wine by the glass. Although the actual serve per glass will vary from hotel to hotel, people would expect to pay a little more for the convenience of receiving wine by a single glass. Julie Bonner is deliberately generous with the pour size at O’Connell’s, offering 185 ml, while most operators would pour around 150 ml. The hotel bistro sells about 40 of its wine by the glass, while the restaurant sells between 10-15.
It’s not uncommon for groups of customers to repeatedly order their wine by the glass when they would find it cheaper to ask for a similar quantity from a whole bottle. For serving the same quantity of wine to the same people, the hotelier pulls in more profit. Tim Bolch says he would rather be serving Coldstream Hills Pinot Noir to a customer at $6 per glass than pots of beer all evening.
Better still, many wholesalers will offer incentives of between 7-11 per case if the wine is listed on the premises as being available by the glass only. What more encouragement does anyone need?
Many hotels find that by giving people the opportunity to taste a single glass of a wine, they are far more likely to feel confident enough to order an entire bottle. Customers will often choose to buy an expensive wine by the glass that they could not afford to drink by the entire bottle. Furthermore, it has become socially acceptable for one individual at a table to order a glass of wine if he or she is the only person wishing to drink wine with the meal. This sale might have gone begging if wine was only on offer by the whole bottle.
How many wines do you need to serve this way to create a balance between customer choice and the reality that a list of 100 opened bottles is expensive overkill? Julie Bonner believe it’s crazy for a restaurant to offer their entire lists by the glass and given the realities of storage and wastage, wonders in what sort of condition some of the wines would be in when presented. In any case, if a customer particularly wants only a glass of a wine listed only by the bottle, a wise operator would happily oblige knowing the rest could be sold by the individual serve, given that the wine in question was neither overly esoteric or expensive.
Michael Lee offers seven white, seven red and four sparkling wines by the glass; each Victorian, each varietal and each good value. ‘When we started three or four years ago, The Argo was one of the few with that range and quality by the glass. That number is now normal and expected – the minimum today for a hotel or restaurant.’
Around ninety percent of the wine at The Argo is sold as specially labelled house wine. Michael Lee is very impressed with the quality and price offered by De Bortoli, who with their Windy Peak wines are able to satisfy his Victorian focus.
Julie Bonner sells well-made, less adventurous but recognisable wines by the glass at O’Connell’s bistro, such as Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay, Orlando RF Chardonnay and RF Cabernet Sauvignon, De Bortoli Windy Peak wines and sparkling Killawarra. The list becomes more interesting in the restaurant, with wines like Matua Valley Chardonnay, Stoniers Chardonnay, Deakin Estate Alfred Chardonnay, Evans and Tate WA Classic, Prince Albert Pinot Noir, Mitchelton Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, Boyntons of Bright Shiraz, Yalumba Cuvee 1, Croser and Roederer Brut NV.
Tim Bolch finds that Southcorp offers the best price for cleanskin house wines, while Tucker Seabrook and Fesq Dorado both assist with wines by the glass from their extensive portfolios.
Breakaway:
Keeping That Opened Bottle:
Many hoteliers use either hand-held pump devices or some form of nitrogen gas dispenser to assist with the preservation of opened bottles. Neither are necessary in a moderately busy hotel.
Once opened, modern wines do not lose their quality as quickly as those of the past and most can cope with some oxygen without deleterious effect.
Hand-held pumps only remove about 67 of the oxygen above the wine and strip out carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which help protect the wine against oxidation. It is easier, cheaper and just as effective to simply but back the cork and keep the wine in a refrigerator.
Gas dispensers can only work if enough gas is pumped into the top of the bottle to dilute the oxygen there, by applying enough gas to reduce it to a safe level of less than 5. The displacement theory presented by those involved producing and selling such devices – which suggests that after a quick squirt either carbon dioxide or nitrogen will form a protective blanketing layer over the wine – is scientific optimism of the most opportunistic kind. Whatever system is used, about two to three litres of gas is required per bottle! Forget it.
Inert gas displacement systems which serve wine by the glass under a permanent cover of nitrogen are costly and complicated and apt to go wrong in a commercial situation. They also strip carbon dioxide from wine, leaving a flatter, duller and considerably less attractive wine in the bottle.
When wines are served and promoted by the glass, they are unlikely to remain opened and unsold for longer than 36 hours, during which time well-chosen wines will not have deteriorated excessively. The easiest and best way to keep them is to simply keep a cork in the top and keep them refrigerated overnight – red and white – or whenever practical.
Breakaway:
Which wines to serve by the glass?
Although there is no reason in a busy establishment not to open most wines for service by the glass, it is safest to proceed with:
o wines without great age
o full-bodied wines
o unwooded whites (if preservation might become a problem), and
o wines with a delicate bouquet and palate.
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