That’s very much the view of Lisa Mcbain, wine buyer for the Fuller’s pub group, who says having a strong by-the-glass offer has been a “game changer” for the business - driven by the increased availability and roll out of Coravin and wine preservation systems. Here she explains what Fuller’s by-the-glass wine strategy is, how it has evolved dramatically in recent years and why she looks increasingly to her wine suppliers to offer her consistent new ideas and wines to excite and interest their customers, whilst providing support and training to staff to help them maximise its by-the-glass wine offer.
What is your overall view on how important wines by-the-glass sales are now to your business compared to five years ago?
By-the-glass occasions and sales are now the key driver of growth for us. Year-on-year, growth is over-indexing total wine sales, reinforcing the importance of this selection.
In the past 12 months, we’ve done a lot of work on our menu look and feel, to make it super easy to navigate our wine selection and to entice guests to trade up and try something new – it’s definitely not about challenging guests or telling people what to drink, its more about helping them to broaden their horizons and celebrate the wonderful world of wine and all her styles.
In our food-led pubs, we now offer 20-25 wines by the glass (including sparkling, sweet and no-alcoholic), with a handful of cellar selections available through Coravin. All wines by the glass are now available in a carafe serve too, at an incentivised price point, which has encouraged guests to explore more unusual or premium wines they might not otherwise tried...
How are you developing your wines by-the-glass range?
We want to be known for offering great wines at fair prices — our house wines must always over-deliver. But equally, having accessible quality upgrade options is essential as this is where our teams can really engage with guests, introduce food pairings, and bring some fun to the conversation.
The opportunity lies in leading guests from the familiar into something new that they like and want to tell their friends about: for example, were launching a delicious Pinot Bianco that’s vibrant, lively, and great mid point between a lean Chablis and a high-quality Pinot Grigio, with a whisper of Chenin freshness. It also happens to be organic and biodynamic.
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