The matchmakers
Trying to sell Pinot Blanc from British Columbia might seem like an uphill struggle - as might trying to persuade a customer that Prosecco is the perfect match for a Stilton and red onion tart, or that Beaujolais is a wine to be taken seriously with salmon. But, if you put them together on a menu, it might suddenly become a whole lot easier - as the People's Palace in London recently found out.
The Capital Group-owned restaurant on the South Bank launched a new food and wine menu in June that is going down a storm. Sales of wine were up by 7% after the first week (not to mention sales of dishes that might usually have moved a little less quickly) and are still climbing, according to the menu's creator, Matt Wilkin.
Wilkin is the Capital Group's consultant sommelier and can usually be seen working the floor at its flagship restaurant at the Capital hotel. To say that he has a way with wine is rather an understatement; he has accolades galore to prove that he can sell it (including UK Sommelier of the Year in both Wine Magazine and the Premier Crew Awards last year) and he certainly knows all about it - he has just sat his wine diploma.
Wilkin is also an Australian, hailing from Adelaide. This is relevant because the new People's Palace menu has more than a touch of Australian bravura about it (and Adelaide was always that country's food capital, though it is now rivalled by both Melbourne and Sydney). It's seen not in the food, which is mainly Mediterranean, but in the pairing.
Every dish on the menu has a different wine to match, and the wines are something of a challenge. A rosé Champagne (François Hémart) is paired with a dish of smoked eel, treacle-cured bacon, fried egg and horseradish; pea soup with foie gras and truffle cream gets a Riesling Kabinett (from F Heyl); sautéd squid with cumin, fennel, aubergine and chickpeas gets that Canadian Pinot Blanc (from Mission Hill); and seared beef, Vietnamese coleslaw, satay dressing is partnered with a Pays d'Oc Viognier (Michel Laroche).
Bravura aside, there was a practical reason behind this list. Many of the diners at People's Palace are eating with an eye on the clock - pre- and post-theatre or concert. "How some customers manage to get down three courses in 45 minutes is beyond me - but they do," Wilkin says. Having the wines chosen for them takes away any precious moments lost in indecision.
The kitchen brigade reckon they can turn out 120 covers in 45 minutes (the restaurant is set up for a maximum of 300 covers). But what about front of house, with all those wine glasses and different wines to juggle? "Yes, they were rather scared to begin with - you know, the two-Michelin-starred boy and all," Wilkin admits. "But People's Palace has always been consistently busy - staff are used to it. I think mistakes would start to happen if the pace wasn't so continuous. I just asked them to be a bit more focused. When they see the food come out, make sure the wine comes out, too. We've had no grumbles yet."
What are some of Wilkin's favourite combinations? He says: "I love the honey-roast duck with the Yalumba Barossa Bush Vine Grenache, and the Cairanne from L'Oratoire St Martin with the rabbit leg, and the way the off-dryness of the Prosecco cuts through the richness of the blue cheese of the tart. And I'm particularly proud of the Thai fish skewers and the rosé - I could have gone for a beer option here, but then I found this juicy, yummy, simple ros‚ from Gres in the Costières de Nîmes."
In fact, there is a beer-pairing option. Wilkin chose a pint of draught L"wenbr„u to team up with the chilled red pepper and tomato soup. "I just couldn't find a wine to go with it," he says. "The reds just exploded and the whites disappeared. I was exhausted trying, so I ordered a beer to pick me up - it was perfect with it."
The list must have taken a lot of work? "Yes," he concedes, "and I'll be changing it every two months or so, along with the menu. But it's good for the suppliers, and good for me - it means I can get tasting again. If I don't have a challenge, then I feel really flat - I perform better this way."
Marketing tool? David Moore is co-proprietor of London's two-Michelin-starred Pied à Terre, and has been offering a daily-changing food- and wine-matching lunch menu for more than five years. "Yes," he says, "I can push people on to drinking two glasses when they might otherwise have chosen only one. And I can sell wine that people might not usually choose - but I use it mainly as a marketing tool." Moore also admits that it helps to get him more column inches in the press (see - it works).
At Pied … Terre, wines are also offered alongside the seven-course tasting menu (£59.30), costing an additional £45 for seven (125ml) glasses of wine, or £22.50 for seven half-glasses of wine. And about half of Moore's customers take this option. "It's yet another upsell," he boasts.
But doesn't a daily-changing menu paired with wines become a scary workload? "We have a duplex printer which prints on both sides," Moore says. "I fold it - that's it. Though it's a lot of work during dinner service. You've got to have a great deal of dexterity - eight different wines on 10 different tables all at different stages. It takes some doing, but it works most of the time. The whole team has to be aware of what's going on."
He adds: "On the lunch menu, I try and make sure there's not much wastage, so sometimes we serve the same wines all week." Chef Shane Osborn tailors the menu to go with the wines. "He's happy to have some direction," Moore says. "It's always a challenge to come up with ideas for the lunch menu."
Apparently, there's no wine Moore can't sell this way - even a Greek Cabernet. "They [customers] don't even look, half the time," he says. "They just say, ‘I'll have what you're recommending'."
Wine dinners
If this all sounds a little daunting, another option is to throw the occasional wine dinner. Indeed, this has become an industry in itself. Wine dinners are a way of filling your restaurant on quiet nights and, like pairing menus, they're great for PR. Wine dinner aficionado Alan Blenkinsop, of Berkshire's Coppid Beach Hotel, says: "We're remembered more for these dinners than we are for all the Christmas cards and gifts that we send out."
Customers love a wine dinner, and if it's a Champagne wine dinner, even better - they'll pay as much as £150 per head (they do at the Vineyard in Stockcross, when Dom Pérignon's in town). The customer is entertained (if they're really lucky, they meet the winemaker), and merchants love it because their wines get some exposure.
Edinburgh chef-proprietor Martin Wishart started doing wine dinners after he expanded his restaurant last year. "It's mainly PR for us, too," he says. "It's a bit of prestige, not to mention being great for staff training. And it's a way of introducing people to your food and to new wines. We don't see it as an excuse to boost profits, but it does."
About 60% of Wishart's wine dinner customers are regulars. "The rest just increases our mailing list," he says.
Wishart charges as much as £65 a head, including wine, for the five-course dinners, which he plans around the wines. "I get the samples about two weeks before the event, and then I sit down with my two sommeliers and work out what flavours will go best," he says. Past dinners have included wines from South Africa's Simonsig Estate and from Rolly-Gassmann in Alsace, France.
The Hotel du Vin Group can take the prize for holding the most wine dinners in the country - about one a week, if you count those in all five of its hotels. Xavier Rousset looks after the cellar, and the wine dinners, at the Hotel du Vin's Bristol property.
"They are time-consuming," he says, "but they're exciting at the same time. I love the reaction you get from customers. We get a lot of regulars to these things, but it has built up because of trust. Each time they come, they ask us more questions, and the more they trust you, the more they spend."
He concludes: "In fact, I think that's the key to these food- and wine-matching things - trust."
A lotta bottle?
Matt Wilkin, the Capital Group's consultant sommelier, is an Australian - and he brings a touch of Australian bravura to the food-and-wine pairing on his menus
A few tips
"Keep it simple," says Matt Wilkin, "and don't layer similar flavours together. For example, if a dish is really earthy - wood pigeon, say - don't match it with an earthy wine. Go for something fruity, as it will lift the dish and add a new dimension. For example, I love the Qupé Syrah with pigeon. And think about textures - don't use an oily wine with an oily dish, as it needs some acidity to break it up."
David Moore says: "You have to build on people's palates. Try to get fatter and fuller throughout the meal. If people really only want one wine, then recommend Austrian Grüner Veltliner - it's fabulously versatile and not intimated by any food. And you don't need to know lots about wine to do this - enthusiasm is just as important. It's only by tasting and making a few mistakes, and getting feedback from customers, that you will learn."
Edinburgh chef-proprietor Martin Wishart advises: "Listen to your sommelier."
And Xavier Rousset, of the Hotel du Vin in Bristol, says: "If a customer wants Sauvignon Blanc with steak, then give it to them. Ultimately, you should have the food you like with the wine you like."
