Virtual virtues

WILL the wine sales reps who cruise the M4 and M25 corridors haggling over discounts and margins please step aside. We are entering the hi-tech wine cyber-age. The Internet is about to change our lives - again.

For the busy sommelier, it will be a dream. He can visit virtual vineyards, e-mail wine-makers, gen up on the latest newsflashes from the wine world, surf his favourite Web sites, and place an order at any time of the day or night. He may never need to meet his wine merchant face to face again.

In reality, this faceless age of hassle-free technology is a long way off. Wine Web service to the on-trade is very, very new. Among the flurry of new wine sites on-line, few list wholesale prices and actually sell on-line to the trade. "The Internet wine business is currently geared to the private customers and buyers," says Claude Douard, head sommelier at London restaurant Mirabelle. "It is really fun, if you can get good service." Like many of his colleagues, Douard does not yet buy on-line for his restaurant. What suits the stock-market trader working at his screen does not suit busy catering staff always on their feet.

Accurate information

"We are aware that if we want restaurants to buy on-line we have to make it easy for them," says Karen Neill, Internet manager of www.bibendum-wine.co.uk. Supplier Bibendum Wines' new wholesale service went live on 27 January and promises sommeliers regularly updated and accurate information, easily accessible order history, a quick ordering facility and efficient service backup. It is one of the first wine suppliers with a well laid out, easy-to-use, comprehensive wholesale site, with handy contact hotlinks across the site for first-time users, and regular restaurant spotlight news. Unfortunately, the site suffers from the usual Net problem - it is too slow to load.

"It takes a leap of faith to try something new," says Marcus Titley of Seckford Wines. "Our restaurant clients use e-mails and visit our site, but they still prefer to order by phone and fax." Seckford's 1,000-strong wine list is updated every two hours, but Titley reckons that most people in the restaurant trade still suffer from techno-fear and will take time to try e-commerce. Seckford's site (www.seckfordwines.co.uk) advertises itself as the place to search for fine and rare wines, but the typeface used for the wine list is so small that it proved difficult to do a price check.

Showing potential

Wine On Web (www.wow.uk.net) is the UK's first new wine Web wholesale company, set up specifically to service pubs, clubs and small restaurants. The new venture, backed by a group of anonymous wine companies, is headed by Patrick Darlington of Darlington Wines and Corby Bottlers. "We are wine wholesalers designed to supply wines within four days of ordering, with a bias towards the New World," says Darlington. Registered guests can view their order history, with a handy margin calculator working out the profit margin as they surf the site. It is only just up and running, but shows good potential.

There are other wholesalers, such as Friarwood, which offer search, find and on-line facilities, but its site (www.friarwood.co.uk) is not as easy to use as those mentioned above. The sites of big national wholesalers such as Waverley (www.waverley-group.co.uk) and Winerite (www.winerite.co.uk) are merely glossy showcases and have yet to bypass the telesales desk and really go live. Within one year there will undoubtedly be an explosion of new and upgraded sites, with almost every merchant on-line and waiting for e-business.

The best sites to surf right now are those which are retailing efficiently and are now gearing up to wholesale, such as www.bbr.com. Berry Bros' popular site, from the old traditional St James merchants, is one of the slickest on the Net. The firm was the first UK merchant on the Net back in 1995, and has a successful history in on-line retailing. Quick to search and easy to move around in, its Web site is one to watch. Last year it registered about 100,000 visitors per month. Also worth investigating in the coming months are www.tannerswines.co.uk and www.laytons.co.uk, both promising wholesale commerce.

A good way of learning about the Net and how it works is to check new hot retail sites such as www.bor deauxdirect.co.uk and www.chateauonline.co.uk, which are slick, quick, well-organised and easy to browse.

Click technology and hassle-free auction bidding for wine lots is apparently the hottest news on the wine Web. Internet retailer Amazon always crops up in Net talk, and here it is again, with on-line wine auctions at www.amazon.co.uk of wines from Qupé and Rochioli, linked with merchants such as James Tait Fine Wines and Berry Bros. Internet-only company Winebid.com (www.winebid.com) has recently arrived from across the Atlantic, but has yet to prove itself over here. UK Web firm Madaboutwine (www.madaboutwine.com), which developed out of Fine &Rare Wines, and auction house Sotheby's (www.sothebys.com) also plan to hold on-line wine auctions.

One of the great advantages of the Net is its ability as a search engine. Anyone searching for fine and rare wines can now trawl the brokers and merchants at sites such as www.cave-cru-classe.com. Alternatively, www.winesearcher.com details more than 300 wine merchants worldwide, but not all sell on-line. You can search for a particular wine to see who sells it, but make a coffee while you wait for the search engine to work.

Unbeatable tool

There is no doubt that the Net is an unbeatable educational tool for busy sommeliers to improve their wine knowledge. "Direct communication between producers and restaurants means wine-makers receive direct feedback from end consumers at restaurant tables worldwide," says James Sankey, group manager and wine buyer at the Atrium and Blue restaurants, in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Buyers can visit virtual regions such as South Africa's www.wine.co.za to check out the latest on vineyard fire damage, study James Halliday's tasting notes on 1999 vintages and read the latest US magazine news, as well as order wine, in one sitting.

While many sommeliers have e-mail addresses and restaurant Web sites, on-line purchasing has yet to catch on. David Harvey, head sommelier at the Cliveden House hotel in Berkshire, cites "inaccurate information" as his worry. Others mention fraud and insecure payment. For example, Sankey, an ardent Net opponent, wonders whether e-commerce will ever be practical for restaurants with limited cellarage, because supply is likely to be bitty unless sourcing from a wide network. He sees no price advantage available over the Net to outweigh the advantages of individual service.

The greatest concern among on-trade buyers is the impersonality of this new medium. "As a commercial buyer on the Net, the problem I fear is that I will lose a little bit of contact with my wine merchant," says Douard at Mirabelle. But for those who feel that e-commerce is being force-fed into their lives, there will always be plenty of convivial wine tastings, wine-maker's dinners and vineyards into which they can escape. n