Press Articles

A FRESH APPROACH TO WINE SALES.

Extract from Club Management Magazine
Reproduced with kind permission.

The power of a glass of wine to aid conviviality and break down barriers takes on a new meaning when times are hard. But it is more important than ever--when dining venues of all kinds, including private clubs, are struggling to find guests--that the presentation, price, and service of that wine deliver value with every sip.

Involved in delivering that value are a number of considerations, including knowing your audience, pricing, and freshness of product. By devoting extra attention to the way in which wine is served and marketed in your club you can increase both member satisfaction and wine sales. One person who understands the issues revolving around wine sales implicitly is Gillian Balance, the sommelier at the Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara, CA.

"As a restaurant professional, I feel that using the Verre de Vin, not only elevates the quality of the wine program to the highest level, but increases profitability and sales, which is something I always strive for." Gillian Balance Wine Director Bacara Resort & Spa in Santa Barbara, CA.

It was quite a different world that Balance dropped into a year ago when she came to Bacara. “It’s been challenging because it’s our first year trying to get to know the clientele and figure out what it is they want to drink,” she noted. After her time at Windows on the World, and knowing that expectations of wine value at a super-high-end resort like Bacara might be great, she was frustrated with what she saw when she visited other properties.

“I was tired of going to Ritz Carltons and sitting in a beautiful restaurant and getting Corbett Canyon for $8 a glass,” she said.

Balance has some major caveats regarding offering wine by the glass. “I’m always leery when I go into a restaurant and see so many wines by the glass,” she said. “You know they can’t all be fresh unless the staff is drinking them at the end of the night. If I see 30 different wines by the glass, I say `pour me the one you opened last.’”

Balance’s concern is well placed. Wine is an organic product, which begins to deteriorate from its peak flavor and bouquet from the moment the bottle is opened. Bacara uses a wine preservation system called Le Verre de Vin, marketed by Bermar America. The Le Verre de Vin system, developed in England, creates a precise vacuum in the bottle which preserves it without “closing down” the esters and phenols which create bouquet.

At Bacara, Balance takes an additional step to preserve her wines’ freshness for service by-the-glass. Bottles are kept cellared rather than behind the bar. Temperature, she notes, can be almost as great a foe of freshness as oxygen and other contaminants.

“I am convinced that the amount of money saved can pay for the unit a hundred times over.

With Le Verre de Vin, I can be certain that my customers are getting the freshest glass of wine or Champagne every time, because it is almost like re-corking the bottle!

The Verre de Vin enables me to offer more selections by the glass, more expensive wines by the glass and more than one Champagne or Sparkling wine by the glass. I do not have to worry about pouring half the bottle down the drain, if someone does not order it again.

As a restaurant professional, I feel that using the Verre de Vin, not only elevates the quality of the wine program to the highest level, but increases profitability and sales, which is something I always strive for.”