The Democratization of Wine — A Fine Dining Perspective
How well does your wine program and your staff serve The Undecideds?
How well does your wine program and your staff serve The Undecideds?
Despite the media coverage these days, you still do have guests who like to have wine with their dinner. From its earliest creations, wine was meant to go with food — sometimes by necessity. No matter what the media says, you do have guests who will order wine with their dinner.
The reality is some percentage of your guests will find their way to order wine — no matter what. Like nature intended. No need for educated staff. They knew they were going to select a bottle of wine. Done. These are The Decideds. That's your baseline of wine sales. There is no way to go from there but up.
The Undecideds
"all wine tastes change at Waterloo Station."
To increase wine sales we need to think about The Undecideds — those on the fence and also the One Glass Guest. Of course these guests come in all shapes and sizes. There is not a one-size-fits-all solution to the challenge of increasing wine sales among The Undecideds.
The Undecideds could be frequent but casual wine drinkers, aspiring beginners, the budget conscious, or the fearful. Then there is the less frequent wine consumer with a special circumstance, or a guest on a date night, or one with a very important business dinner.
A well-known London-based sommelier once said, "all wine tastes change at Waterloo Station." Is one going home for a school night and the less expensive Malbec? Or is one coming into the city for a date night, an important occasion, or a business dinner?
While your guests vary, there is one constant — they will order food. Whether they order wine is much more variable and nuanced. Let's take a closer look.
For a variety of reasons, some guests simply need help in order to make a decision. However, just like asking for directions, some will ask for help, but others won't — whether it's pride of aptitude, just not their style (they prefer to self-serve), or they don't want to engage in a conversation they're not comfortable with.
““we go out with another couple or two, the wine list gets passed around, we all shrug our shoulders and order a bottle of beer.” ”
Our son, in his early 30s and no stranger to fine dining, once told me, "we go out with another couple or two, the wine list gets passed around, we all shrug our shoulders and order a bottle of beer." I know these kids. They want to try wine — and they are not completely unfamiliar with it. They have nothing against wine. But the typical printed wine list is just a non-starter. They are curious, and on a daily basis they consume mountains of information. But the typical wine list might just as well be the white pages.
It seems particularly the case with wine and fine dining that many guests see barriers to a decision, while others can't find the confidence to make one. How can we help them get over the hump and experience a memorable wine discovery, a great food and wine pairing, or just simply a new understanding of what they like?
Let's Start with Your Servers
So why is it so hard for so many servers to embrace wine?
No one should be more motivated to increase average check size than servers. So why is it so hard for so many servers to embrace wine? In many establishments, servers are far younger than the average age of the patrons they serve. The vast majority of servers haven't yet had a chance to really experience wine. They need information, confidence, and motivation.
Servers will be more motivated and confident when there is a culture that supports them — a Culture of Wine, in this case. If you build it, they will come, and they will be motivated. But building a culture of wine takes time and energy. Time is money. For many establishments, the time is just not there.
So let's start with how we can get servers interested and build the culture without it taking a lot of time and money for restaurant operators.
First, let your servers be part of the process — the process of discovering their own tastes, their palate, their likes and dislikes — all within the context of your wines and your food. They should know their own wine preference profile, and do so within the context of your wine selections. Each time they try a wine, they rate it, maybe write a short review, and their preference profile is updated. This is learning by doing. Sure, they can read and listen, but doing is the most effective starting point — and it lays the groundwork for reading and listening. Now, maybe this notion is not exactly profound, but it's likely to never happen without the right easy-to-use, easy-to-access tools. We'll come back to this.
The next frontier for your servers is food and wine pairing. Food and wine pairing is the #1 barrier for The Undecideds. Not only that — it is the #1 searched topic regarding wine. There are other barriers, but let's start here. Now that your servers have experienced your wines and created their preference profile, they are ready to put wines in the context of food. They should be able to think of wines they like that pair with certain entrees. A decent starting point, but we can do better. Plus, it's probably no secret that among The Undecideds there are skeptics of the one wine that gets recommended because it's long in stock. For any given pairing, we want our servers to be able to describe why it's a good pairing.
How about giving your servers some easy-to-use and accessible tools — digital tools? This is not expensive. Tablets cost $150. Smartphones are free — your servers already have them. And any of these devices can be connected to your POS and inventory in real time, so the information is always up to date automatically.
Their smartphones and tablets have all the information they need to know about your wines — plus pairings for each dish, and sample food pairings for every wine, each with an explanation. Everything is right there at their fingertips. Anytime a new wine is added or a wine is 86'd, the tablets and smartphones are updated in seconds.
Educated and Empowered Servers
Now we have educated and empowered servers who are capable and motivated to recommend and sell more wine. However, despite their best efforts, we can't and shouldn't rely solely on our servers to increase wine sales. Why? As we alluded to earlier, any fine dining restaurant will have some number — and likely a significant number — of patrons who simply don't want to engage with their servers in a wine discussion. Let's call them the Silent Majority of The Undecideds.
Let's meet the Silent Majority of The Undecideds where they want to be met. Let's give them a visually inspiring, informative, and intelligent way to make selecting a wine easy and fun. Let's break down the barriers to indecision: lack of knowledge about your wines, uncertainty about food and wine pairings, and the risk of paying for something they won't like.
How do we satisfy both The Decideds and The Undecideds?
Enter the Digital Wine and Beverage Experience.
For starters, it's a lot easier to read, especially in a dimly lit room. Has anyone noticed that many wine lists are becoming fine print for anyone without 20/20 vision — often in an effort to get every selection on one sheet of paper? Meanwhile, The Book might be easier to read, but who hasn't perused the book and noted some interesting wines, only to forget exactly where they were and fumble around while trying to place an order?
The wine book is clearly not meant for The Undecideds. The popular solution these days is to make the wine list smaller — as in fewer selections. This can be a risky choice if you've established your restaurant as a wine destination. Herein lies the challenge: how do we satisfy both The Decideds and The Undecideds?
The answer lies in a digital experience built on 2020s progressive web app technology — not the iPad wine list of old — integrated with the restaurant technology you already own: POS, inventory, and host management systems. Firstly, this is a lot less work, time, and effort compared with keeping your wine data in three separate systems: menu management, POS, and inventory. But let's get back to the customer experience.
With a 2020s progressive web app UI, an aficionado can browse through an extensive list by scrolling much faster than turning the pages of a wine book. Virtually every website and mobile app you encounter these days is based on an "infinity scroll" UI. Plus, this UI enables filtering — by region, variety, price, vintage, ratings, and more. This digital experience includes a search option. There's also a bookmarking feature, which makes it easier to note and recall wines one might want to consider and then share with their server. No side to side, up and down page navigation. A table of contents, one tap, and you're where you want to be. It's simply a better way for The Decideds to browse and decide.
For The Undecideds, there is more — which is exactly what they want to help them decide. There is the food menu with wine pairings and explanations. There are menu recommendations for every wine. There are wine regions and varietal descriptions and images. There are producer stories and tasting notes. There are graphical tasting notes, wine critic ratings and reviews, and more. All of this with just one extra tap.
And all of this takes no additional time or effort for a restaurant operator and staff. Everything is automated: the information about each and every wine is automatically curated and updated from a master wine database. The menus — food, wine, and beverage — are automatically updated based on the menus and selections in the POS. What is in stock and available in inventory is reflected on the digital menu; what is out of stock is not.
The Result?
Your wine program prospers. Your customers and staff are happier. You spend less time on your wine program — no matter the size. The Undecideds experience discoveries, have memorable experiences, and come back for more.
That is the democratization of wine. A program that meets every guest where they are — the Decideds, the Undecideds, and the Silent Majority alike — and gives each of them their own path to a great glass.
Democracy, at work.
