Measure for measure

Selling wine by the glass can be a good way to increase cash profits, but there are several pitfalls to avoid. It's no good installing a swanky wine preservation system if staff aren't using it properly, or if your wines are dull. Susan Low reports.

Increase wine sales by 25%! Encourage your guests to "trade up" to premium wines! Raise consumer awareness! Banish cellulite forever! OK, we made the last one up, but the first three sound pretty good, don't they? These are the carrots dangled in front of potential users of the Verre de Vin wine preservation system (a patented process that preserves still wines by using a controlled vacuum). According to David Marr of Bermar International, the makers of Verre de Vin, all these goals are achievable by introducing a well-planned wine-by-the-glass programme.

In the past decade or so, selling wine by the glass has become a big talking point in the restaurant and bar trade. Taking the cue from trend-setting wine bars on the other side of the Atlantic (such as Eos in San Francisco and the Hudson Club in Chicago), restaurateurs have woken up to its profit potential. Yet, Marr says, the desire for wine by the glass is driven not by the trade but by the public: "They are drinking better wine at home and don't want to settle for the usual ‘plonk-de-plonk' that they were being offered."

Broad range

Some restaurants and bars have responded by bringing in extensive by-the-glass programmes. Among the most broad-ranging are Restaurant 1837 at Brown's Hotel in London (200 wines), the Crooked Billet at Newton Longville in Buckinghamshire (270 wines), Vinopolis in London (about 30 wines), Oliver Peyton's Isola in London (62 wines), Wine Republic at Birmingham's National Exhibition Centre (40-50 wines) and London wine bar chain Corney & Barrow (about 40 wines).

Restaurant 1837 brought in its programme three years ago under then-sommelier Emmanuel Defever (who has since moved to the Fat Duck at Bray, Berkshire). The restaurant's current head sommelier Stéphane Loubatières, reports that the programme has been working very well. "We sell some very fine wines by the glass," he says, "and until now [following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington], we have had a lot of American customers who are keen to drink fine wine."

Loubatières says he sells 100-200 glasses of wine per week, depending on the season. Has turnover increased? "Definitely." he says. "For us it's a very good tool. And it's easier to sell a glass of d'Yquem [£40 for a 100ml glass of d'Yquem '91] than it is to sell a bottle."

An important part of 1837's by-the-glass programme is that it is tied in with its seven- to nine-course dégustation menu. For this the staff concentrate on selling accompanying wines by the glass or in 100ml tasting measures.

A similar scheme operates at the Charlton House Mulberry Restaurant in Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Here the seven-course menu gourmand is complemented by a 25-strong offering of wines by the glass.

According to Lesley Baker, who is in charge of sales and marketing for Mulberry Restaurant, the by-the-glass programme was brought about "basically because we wanted to give our customers a chance to try wines that they wouldn't ordinarily try." As at 1837, staff work at selling glasses to accompany each course - and, Baker says, it's a good tool for selling whole bottles, too. "If they're going to spend £50 on a bottle of wine, they want to try it first," she says. The scheme is also popular at lunch, when even a half-bottle of wine is too much for many diners.

Mulberry Restaurant's by-the-glass scheme was brought in at the beginning of 2001 and has been declared a success. "Our bottom line has gone up because of this," Baker says. But the profits haven't increased by anywhere near the 25% figure that has been bandied around. Instead, Baker reports a value increase of between 5-8% as well as a substantial increase in volume.

Meanwhile, at the Birmingham NEC, Patrick Ashe of Wine Republic is equally bullish about his wine programme. This wine bar, which opened last year, "is all about enjoying wine without pretension," Ashe says. The bar runs regular wine and food matchings and blind tastings, and all the wines on the list (40-50 at any time) are available by the 175ml or 250ml glass; all are also available for customers to taste for free before buying, in 5ml "free pour" samples.

"I've been doing [by-the-glass programmes] for years," says Ashe. "I introduced it to the Selfridge Hotel in London in 1992 and across the NEC restaurant group" [which has six restaurants]. So does it help to bump up the bottom line? "Absolutely," he says - with a caveat. "You have to prepare yourself for the fact that it might not increase profits at first. You have to go out there and sell."

Yet, given the consumer demand for more wines to be made available by the glass, and the sorts of figures that David Marr insists are achievable, it is surprising that more restaurants and wine bars haven't brought in by-the-glass programmes.

There are, of course, drawbacks. The most obvious two are initial cost and wastage. The prospect of wasting expensive wines is particularly off-putting to restaurateurs, who generate much of their profit through their wine programme.

"Wastage is one of the key issues," Ashe says. "You will have a higher wastage level, but you have to accept that". Yet the wastage isn't as high as some might think. Even with 200 wines available by the glass at 1837, Loubatières reports that only "two to four bottles are going down the sink each week," while Mulberry Restaurant reports "not much wastage at all".

Loubatières keeps the number of bottles open down to a minimum. "I try to have no more than 15 bottles of red and 15 bottles of white open at any time," he says. "And then these will be sold in two to three days".

Keeping the number of wines available by the glass to a manageable number is a wise precaution, Ashe says. "If I had 150 wines on the list, then I'd have 150 bottles open at any time - then that would be frightening," he says.

Knowledgeable staff

In the end, having a successful by-the-glass scheme very much depends on having knowledgeable, committed staff who are willing and able to sell the wines - and informed enough to do so. And that comes down to staff training, which is another cost in terms of both time and money. "When I did Wine Republic I had 20 staff and gave them 60 hours' training," Ashe says. "You have to get the commitment. Your staff are your ambassadors."

But there are other considerations, too. Open bottles need to be checked daily to make sure that they're in peak condition. Depending on the number of bottles open, this can take between 20 minutes to more than an hour each day. But perhaps the most important obstacle that needs to be overcome is an ideological one. "A lot of people approach the wine- by-the-glass issue as a potential problem, rather than a selling opportunity," Ashe says. "They're aiming too low. They pick their wines from the low-cost end of the list because they don't want to expose themselves. But you get higher wastage at the lower range", he points out.

Another mental obstacle to get over is that of gross profit. When wastage, staff training and increased time are factored in, it's not unusual for gross profits per bottle to decrease when a by-the-glass scheme is brought in - even though the cash coming in goes up. "A lot of people get caught up on the gross profit thing," Ashe says. Your gross profit margin does go down, but your cash profit goes up." And, he adds, "You can't bank a gross profit, but you can bank cash."

Help your staff look after your customers

Despite the profit opportunities offered by introducing a by-the-glass scheme, they're not always an unalloyed success from the customer's point of view. Sure, customers want a better choice of wines by the glass, but merely introducing the scheme doesn't guarantee perfect results.

For starters, having a range of dull, "entry-level" wines is a turn-off. Being served wine that's out of condition is an even bigger turn-off. Poorly trained staff who don't know the difference between a fresh wine and an out of condition wine (but who like to argue the point) are a massive turn-off, particularly when they habitually "top up" your fresh glass with the dregs of some ancient, poorly stored bottle.

Merely installing a system such as Verre de Vin doesn't mean that staff will automatically use it. It isn't at all unusual for the expensive equipment to go unused when bar staff are in a hurry - as those glasses of stale wine testify. If you don't take the scheme seriously, neither will the customers.