Ten years ago if you asked to see a wines by-the-glass menu in a bar or restaurant you would probably be shown to an ice bucket with a few half drunk bottles in it with nothing more than entry level wines to choose from. Now wines by-the-glass are a crucial part of any on-trade venue’s wine offer and if done right can contribute enormously to its bottom line. Guests can now cherry pick from a wide selection of ever diverse wines all the way up the pricing ladder. To find out just how different operators are handling wines by-the-glass and what impact it has had on their wine suppliers, The Buyer teamed up with Coravin, which has done so much to revolutionise wines by-the-glass with its pioneering systems and technology, to bring key premium on and off-trade figures together to openly debate where they see the by-the-glass opportunity going next.
Strip back the one thing all premium restaurants, bars and wine retailers have in common and it is their desire to offer their guests the best experience they can through the range of food and wine services they can provide. Key to that offer is the diversity of their wine range with an increasing focus on their wines by the glass selection.
As the pressure on hospitality mounts up by the day with increased employment, supply chain, energy and food costs, the focus has never been greater on what margins and profitably operators can get out of the wines they list. Which is why wines by-the-glass have become such a more important part of what a venue can do.
A combination of word of mouth, industry experience and better advice and support from their suppliers has opened up the by-the-glass opportunity. The most ambitious operators are leading the way with a wide selection of wines all the way up the pricing ladder, offering higher margins and better profits as they go.
Fundamental to this growth has been the arrival of Coravin and its range of systems that have turned what restaurants and bars can do by-the-glass on its head (other wine preservations systems are available).
It has crucially opened up wines by-the-glass to the fine wine sector and you would now struggle to find a Michelin star restaurant anywhere in the world that does not have at least one Coravin system for its team.
It is also working increasingly across the premium on-trade to help sommeliers, restaurateurs and wine suppliers, better understand the dynamics of wines by-the-glass and what more it can be doing to help its customers increase sales and profitability.
Last month it released the results of a major consumer study into wines by-the-glass trends and last week it launched its own dedicated website - The Coravin Guide - that profiles restaurants in key cities around the world with extensive by-the-glass programmes (initially in London, Melbourne, Sydney, Milan, The Netherlands and California).
The Buyer also teamed up with Coravin last month to host a major industry debate that brought leading on-trade buyers, sommeliers and importers together to share their wines by-the-glass experiences and what they see as the big opportunities going forward.
A panel that included:
- Jeremy Lithgow MW, head of wine at Amathus Drinks
- Fabio Monteiro, head sommelier, at 1890 Gordon Ramsay
- Loredana Gazzato, sales and events manager at The Vintry and Fullers pub group
- Andrew Clark, head of beers, wines and spirits at, Mitchells & Butlers
- Simon Watson, senior account manager, Jeroboams
- Regine Lee, managing director, Indigo Wine
- James Stoddart, senior business development manager, Hallgarten and Novum Wines
- Felipe Carvallo, head of trade sales, Flint Wines
- Andrew Ingham, on-trade sales director, Bibendum
- Anne Roque, head of sales UK and Ireland, Coravin
- Fleur Puschack, Pushack, global activation manager Coravin
Setting the scene
We were able to open up the debate by revealing some of the headline figures from a trade survey that The Buyer carried out with Coravin to assess just what the on the ground support for wines by the glass now is.
It found that the majority of respondents ( 70%) had seen wines by the glass sales increase either significantly (24.3%), or a small increase (45.9%). For those that have seen an increase in sales, it’s mostly in the £10-15 or £15-20 per glass price brackets.
When asked what they saw as the reasons for by-the-glass sales increasing the reasons given were:
- Desire to explore and try something different.
- Looking to cut down on their alcohol levels.
- Dining with non-drinkers so need to order a bottle.
- Choosing quality over quantity.
- The price of a bottle of a wine.
Other clear trends that emerged from the research included:
- Offering more flexibility to guests when buying wine be it through offering multiple glass sizes; half glasses; flights of wine to taste.
- Guests want to spend less but still try more.
- They also want to feel special on a night out looking for memorable moments - which is why wine flights are increasingly popular.
- By-the-glass also resonates well with Gen Z’s values of variety, quality, and sustainability.
The findings certainly resonated with the panel who were each able to share just how important the category has become in their businesses.
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