How has Covid changed wine service? More than you might think.
By W. Blake Gray | Posted Monday, 15-Feb-2021
The first winner of Donald Trump’s TV show “The Apprentice” pulled back the curtain last week on an often veiled part of every wine lover’s life: how wines get on restaurant lists.
Bill Rancic became a reality TV star on his own after Trump told him “You’re Hired” at the end of the first season of The Apprentice in 2004. Eventually he parlayed his fame into the restaurant industry, opening RPM Italian and RPM Steak restaurants in Chicago, with an outpost in Washington, DC.
Last week he hosted an online event held by the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) intended for wineries to learn about how they might use the three-tier system – WSWA members make up the middle tier – to get their wines in restaurants.
I can summarize that advice very quickly: be cheaper than everybody else, with comparable quality. Oh, and don’t show up at the restaurant without an appointment. Beverage directors really hate that.
While I’m aware that plenty of winery people read this website, we’re intended for wine lovers, so let’s look at it from the other side. There are probably darker wine list secrets, but what was revealed in this online forum?
There’s a reason you haven’t heard of many of the wines.
“If Chateau Smith costs $100 in every grocery store in the country, I can’t charge $200 for it,” said Richard Hanauer, wine director for RPM Restaurants. “That is a sour feeling in my guests’ mouth. They can’t focus on enjoying that wine. I focus on exclusively small wineries. When it comes to Napa Cabernet, some of my lists, you can’t find a well-known Cabernet on that menu. We are taking away that choice from guests so they can’t do that value calculation in their head.
“There are a lot of tricks that we use to boost confidence among our guests. We’re constantly cleaning, constantly polishing. We’re constantly giving off the aura that we are a safe place to spend money on wine.”
Wines by the glass are hard to predict: some wineries sell them at a discount to get on the list. But others are unknown for a reason: they may be “private label” wines made by a well-known winery with a different name.
“When it comes down to our commodity wines, the wines that we’re buying at the lowest price point possible, we private label all of them,” Hanauer said. “We do that to prevent somebody spending $14 for a glass of wine, walking down to Costco and seeing it for $7.99 [a bottle]. We’ve taken that ability away from our customers.”
Smaller and less hands-on
Lists are going to be smaller.
“We’re seeing restaurants being cautious and conservative,” said Rick Lopus, vice president of sales for the distributor Great Lakes Wine & Spirits. “If they had a 60-bottle list before, they’re going to have a 30-bottle list. We’re seeing a little trend toward ‘comfort wines’.” (He did not define the term.)
“One thing that’s important for everyone trying to sell niche brands is to understand that nobody has time to hand-sell anymore,” said Dan Davis, wine director at Commander’s Palace in New Orleans. “We don’t have sommelier staff on the floor. People are going to look down that list and see what seems exciting to them. Is there an older vintage available, which is something I look for? Is there a magnum? Is there a compelling value?”
Even before the pandemic, I liked to pour my own wine – including at Commander’s Palace (a great restaurant). I thought a lot of wine geeks felt that way. Apparently not. But you would make the staff feel safer if you did.
“When we present a bottle, we pour the taste for the host and ask the host if they would like to pour their own wine,” Davis said. “I can only think of two instances where someone has said they want to pour their own wine [Not me, I haven’t been there since 2018]. “When people are at a table, they have their masks off. I am very concerned about my staff and I want to give them permission to walk away.”
High-end restaurant sommeliers actually enjoyed the pomp-and-circumstance of opening a bottle (or at least their bosses did).
“It was heartbreaking: wine service, in all of its grandeur, to sterilize it felt terrible,” Hanaeur said. “But I’m not going to risk anything about my staff. A lot of it is really gauging the guests’ comfort. Did they want you to drop the wine on a coaster on the table, or do they want the full song and dance? My biggest problem is I’m now very separated from the wine on the floor. With decanting and normal service you’re essentially tasting every wine in the restaurant. I’m severed from that and it’s really uncomfortable, but it’s really about what the guest wants.”
Help wanted!
“I see a desperate attempt to staff our restaurants for the coming wave of demand,” said Davis.
“We’re working with these teams that are sparse and barebone,” Hanauer said. “I’m floating around to all our restaurants to try to keep our standards where they were a year ago, while simultaneously running all these virtual events and trying to rehire.”
