Newby to creating a wine list

I think many Peckerheads will weigh in on this one. You will see just how complicated a simple question can become.

I'm waiting

Steve,

Sounds like a fun project. I'd suggest that you look at the wine list in two parts.

First - take a good long look at your menu. Work with your chef to come up with a small wine list that pairs with the food, as flawlessly as you can. Here's the fun part - you and the staff get to hold mini-tastings of that menu with wines that you think will work well. Pare that list down to about four, which you (and the staff) KNOW will work well. Get your distributor to work with you on the wines for the food. Many will even comp the wines for your tasting exercise and should be invited to participate. Don't start out with a preconceived notion of varietals, or place of origin. Let the menu dictate what you try. Be brutally honest in your assessment of how well the wines work

- you want HITS, not just OKs.

Second - get to the membership and talk to them about the wines that THEY like. You might get lucky and have some overlap from your list in part I. If not, then pare down list 2 to about four wines with the most general appeal. Start with the two lists being available, but maybe add your "recommendations" for wine pairing to each dish on the menu, in hopes that the membership will try those. Monitor the sales of the wines on your two lists carefully. If the membership is still not buying the matched wines, you might even offer special pricing (loss leaders) just to make sure they are actually trying these with the food.

After you have worked with these two lists for a bit, doing everything in your power to insure that the membership is actually trying the recommended wines, start eliminating the wines that are not selling. Giving this method time to work, start replacing the no-sale wines, one, maybe two, at a time, with other wines.

Even if a food/wine match is made in Heaven, it does you no good if the members will simply NOT buy those wines.

You could possibly end up with an all Italian list, or all French. Don't worry about that. You are not the distributor - you are only trying to make the members happy. Heck, you could even end up with 8 selections of White Zinfandel (God forbid), but it THAT is what makes the members happy, so be it.

Then, you can start bringing in a "new" wine, say once a month. Offer it as a special, and monitor its sales. Replace it with another new wine, and monitor the requests for the old special.

Your list should be a living thing, very dynamic, to reflect new dishes that the chef adds, or subtracts. Go for the best pairing, and see how it goes.

Most of all, have fun, and good luck, Hunt

I didn't have to wait long at all.

Steve- There are a lot of great and inexpensive Austrian wines available in England. I'd suggest trying one Gruner Veltliner for your list, if your membership is at all adventurous. It's known for pairing well with many different foods.

-e

Salut/Hi Steve Flanagan,

le/on 12 Apr 2005 03:16:52 -0700, tu disais/you said:-

By that, do you mean you're looking to buy some wines to keep in stock so that you can offer a small choice to members at these occasions?

Yes Ian we are. Unfortunately, none of us are anywhere near being reasonably experienced when it comes to things like this, hence, my original posting.

Personally, I'm a red wine person (especially with Italian food which I adore, and steaks, etc), whilst some people prefer a white wine (not too keen on white wine myself - except for Retsina with a nice Greek Salad on a hot summer evening in the garden)

I suppose what we are looking for is a nice range of wines to have on stock at the gatherings I mentioned.

I must thank Hunt for his/her thoughts. Very interesting and very enlightning, however, we don't have a dedicated chef to be honest. The catering is provided for by a group of ladies from the local church who do a very nice meal which is usually along the lines of:

Starter - usually soup which changes all the time Main - Roast dinner seems to be the favourite with a mixture of beef and lamb, although they have done a very nice roast gammon in the past as well. Dessert - Lemon Meringue and Fruit Salad seem to be the main choices - although sometimes a trifle is added as well. Following dessert there is a cheese board (including French cheeses, Edam, Stilton and then a white and red cheese) - although personally I prefer to have a port with mine.

I should have added that to my original message - apologies.

Personally, I think it is a good idea as the only wine we sell at the moment is single measure bottles and, asically, it's 1 white and 1 red, but we are lookig to branch out a bit.

What we want is a small list of wines that will go well with the menu above, are fairly cheap to buy whilst also being good (i.e. basically we don't want to buy a bottle of "vinegar" just beacuse it's cheap). We're not looking for a massive margin on the wine, just something that the members can buy which they will probably enjoy with what's on offer.

Cheers

Steve

[] ] I suppose what we are looking for is a nice range of wines to have on ] stock at the gatherings I mentioned. [] ] I should have added that to my original message - apologies. ] ] Personally, I think it is a good idea as the only wine we sell at the ] moment is single measure bottles and, asically, it's 1 white and 1 ] red, but we are lookig to branch out a bit. ] ] What we want is a small list of wines that will go well with the menu ] above, are fairly cheap to buy whilst also being good (i.e. basically ] we don't want to buy a bottle of "vinegar" just beacuse it's cheap). ] We're not looking for a massive margin on the wine, just something ] that the members can buy which they will probably enjoy with what's on ] offer.

Hi Steve,

My experience with clubs is not huge, but what little I have is that by and large you should keep things simple. Most members won't want to explore or go into details, they just want a little choice. At the Bohemian club in SF most dinners are "red or white", offering IIRC Ravenswood Vintners Blend Zin and St Supery (forgive bad spellings please) Sauvignon Blanc. The Friars in NY offers a little more choice but everything is reasonable and nothing is exotic.

So advice: you personally, or your comittee or whoever, will have to taste a few bottles. Hard duty. I'd aim for 3 or 4 red and an equal number of whites. For red, say a chianti, an inexpensive fruit forward aussie shiraz, a cotes du rhone and something like the Ravenswood or something spanish to remind folks of that nice vacation. For whites, try for a NZ sauvignon blanc, an american or aussie chardonnay, an entre-deux-mers, something german and a bit sweet.

Go for friendly, supple wines without heavy tannins, that are made to drink now. Pay attention to price, going 10-20 pounds resale. Buy small enough quantities so that if a wine doesn't work you can change the list easily.

As for specifics, you'll need to see what local sales are available, from there we could advise you further.

HTH

-E

possibility

I'd suggest that you form a relationship with a local wine merchant. I am sure you could find one that was prepared to recommend wines and keep you supplied. Talk to a few and choose one you get along with. I'd start by contacting any small independent merchant in the area, Majestic should also be able to help I guess, or maybe Oddbins.

Where are you based? We might be able to recommend shops.