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🚀 5 Proven Strategies to Boost Wine Revenue in Your Restaurant 🍷 If you’re in the restaurant business, you know that wine can be a key driver of revenue. But how do you maximize that potential? After years of working in fine dining and luxury hospitality, here are my top strategies to turn your wine list into a profit powerhouse: 1️⃣ Curate Your Wine List for Every Guest Offer a diverse range of wines across price points—balance luxury with accessibility. Tailor your list to your clientele, but don’t shy away from introducing guests to something new! 2️⃣ Train Your Team to Sell the Experience, Not Just the Wine It’s not just about memorizing tasting notes. Empower your team to create a story around each wine—pairing it with dishes, explaining its origin, or sharing the winemaker’s journey. Enthusiastic, informed staff make all the difference. 3️⃣ Pair Wines with Signature Dishes Work with your chefs to create standout food & wine pairings. This adds perceived value and encourages guests to experience wine as an integral part of their dining journey. 4️⃣ Promotions with a Purpose Offer wine flights or a ‘wine of the month’ to encourage exploration. Limited-time promotions can also help move higher-margin wines or bottles with slower turnover. 5️⃣ Focus on Upselling Without the Hard Sell Instead of pushing the most expensive bottle, guide your guests to wines that elevate their meal and meet their preferences. This leads to more satisfaction and repeat business. Wine isn’t just about pouring a drink; it’s about enhancing the overall dining experience. And when done right, it can be a huge revenue booster for your restaurant. Try it for yourselves and let me know 😉

In today's Substack chapter of Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants: Discussing age-old issues associated with restaurant wine lists, and the ofttimes antagonistic role of sommeliers. #winelist #sommelier #sommelierlife #restaurantwine #hospitality #HospitalityManagement #foodandbeverage #FoodAndBeverageManagement

In today’s Substack snippet from the upcoming book Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants, some food for thought on wine by the glass markups. #restaurantwine #winebytheglass #winemarkup #HospitalityIndustry #HospitalityManagement #foodandbeverageindustry #foodandbeveragemanagement #sommelier #winelist

Today's chapter from Restaurant Wine Management is on what matters most, i.e., culinary concerns. #restaurantlife #restaurantwine #sommelierlife #sommjournal #winelist #hospitalityindustry #hospitalitymanagementanagement #sommelierbusiness #sommelierdreams #winelist #foodandbeverage #foodandbeverageindustry

What’s our psychology behind choosing wine? Why do we go for the “second cheapest” in a restaurant or even on a shelf? This short clip is funny, but it’s trying to call out a very common situation from wine ignorance: considering the insane margins practiced in the US generally in restaurants, the majority of non savvy people go for the 2nd cheapest (which is usually priced so to produce the highest margin by restaurant managers trying ton optimize their P&L). Trying to decipher what makes our #wine decisions in different cases: 1. For the knowledgeable drinkers, we usually go for a combination of the following: - what will be the nice pairing and best choice for the party, whether a date or a group of people. - what’s the best value considering the supposed price range/budget we have - other considerations: vintages, favorite regions, producers we have tasted before. - and then finally some sommelier talking, advice if the restaurant provides one. Note: I don’t want to sound snobbish because I don’t think I’m a wine snob, but one of the most annoying things for wine connoisseurs is when you have a supposed sommelier who doesn’t know what they’re talking about and tries to sell you a wrong overpriced bottle… 2. For the vast majority who just want to enjoy a good bottle the mental process is more complex: - fearing making the wrong deal or spending too much money on a wine we won’t enjoy. - the burden of feeling embarrassed not knowing which wine to choose. - the complicated relationship with a sommelier trying to guess what we like and the budget we have while we can’t explain it openly. This is why in the end a lot of us end up with the second choice. How to solve the problem: there are a lot of avenues such as having your taste deciphered with AI and blind tasting, a #technology we developed with Palate Club. Another way is people using apps such as Vivino to check prices and what people say but that has its own limits since retail and restaurants pricing are very different and other people’s taste don’t say much about your own, hence critic scores are completely biased. I’ve seen some rich people just go for the most expensive one, to make sure they have a good wine… The best solution in my opinion is the perfect pairing you sometimes get on #gastronomy menus. It’s usually very well thought and so you don’t have to think and have the paradox of choice. But when we don’t have that, we might as well take the second cheapest wine.

The essential tools sommeliers use to elevate wine service, from communication and sensory skills to continuous learning. 🍇🍷 Sommelier Business | Beverage Trade Network #Sommeliers #WineService #WineEducation #WineTasting #SommelierTools #WineProfessionals #WineSkills #ContinuousLearning #SensorySkills #WineIndustry #ProfessionalDevelopment #WineExperts #HospitalityIndustry #WineAndSpirits #OnTradeMarket

Today’s Substack chapter from my upcoming book, Culinary Approach to Wine In Restaurants, has one message: A wine list does NOT have to be huge and all-encompassing to bring highest prestige and success to a restaurant. #winelist #sommjournal #sommelier #sommelierlife #hospitality #HospitalityManagement #foodandbeverageindustry

Jeremy Shanker, Corporate Wine Director at MINA Group, rose from server assistant to sommelier, now overseeing 30 restaurants, focusing on profitability, guest demographics, and mentorship amidst industry challenges, emphasizing wine program success. Get insights into restaurant wine sales with Jeremy Shanker, MS, Corporate Wine Director at Award-winning restaurant group - MINA Group. From his starting days at Corkbuzz Chelsea Market to overseeing $40 million in sales, Jeremy shares exclusive strategies for success. For an in-depth exploration, check out the full interview. Give us an example of a profitable wine program mentioning wines on your list and why you have them: Estiatorio Ornos in SF has a significant amount of older vintage wines. With a little digging, and outside of blue chips, some incredible deals can be had in older wines. For instance, it costs us almost the same amount of money to buy an older bottle of Diamond Creek as it does a current vintage. We can make a higher margin on older bottles while still providing value to the guest. What are the three main things you focus on daily in your role? People, product, profit. Read entire interview here.

Vintage Vigilance: Navigating the Pour – Deciphering Wine Prices: Sticker shock when you read the bar or restaurant wine list prices? Have you wondered how much that bottle of wine you're ordering is marked up? SOURCE: Vintage Vigilance: Navigating the Pour – Deciphering Wine Prices BY: eTurboNews | eTN #travelnews

The relationship between #food and wine is a timeless dance of flavors, intricately shaped by regional traditions and elevated through the art of complementary pairings. For culinary enthusiasts and wine lovers, appreciating the synergy between these elements can transform a dining experience from ordinary to exceptional. https://lnkd.in/eqYkDSCq