Training the taste buds
To make the most of your wine list, it's essential to train your staff effectively.
Alison Carter shares her experience
As licensees, training ourselves about wine is hard enough - the whole subject can appear too vast and daunting to tackle. When it comes to training our staff, we are filled with dread - where do we start? Many young bar- staff have never drunk or enjoyed wine themselves. Add several failed geography GCSEs, a busy bar with limited training time and a staff churn rate that is off the Richter scale and it all feels like an uphill struggle.
Supermarkets - if I dare utter that "s" word - have probably done more than anyone to educate the public about wine. They've simplified and demystified it by identifying brands predominantly in terms of grape
type and country, rather than by vineyard and region.
Pubs can learn a lot from studying the shelf-talkers at any Tesco or Waitrose wine department, but more communication is required - staff must to be able to discuss wine confidently and knowledgeably with customers, answer questions and make recommendations. Licensees must seek to learn more about wine ourselves, as well as finding a way to empower our staff to sell the stuff for us.
Our customers expect nothing less.
No need to be an expert
According to the Wine & Spirit Trade
Association, a staggering £13.5bn was spent by consumers on wine in 2004. Consumption of 1.2bn litres in that year ranked the UK as the world's eighth-largest wine-consuming country in terms of volume. With supermarkets accounting for about two-thirds of wine sales, there are still plenty of opportunities for pubs to make the most of a booming market.
Firstly, to sell wine profitably and successfully you do not need to be a wine expert - what is essential is putting in a bit of leg-work, opening a few bottles and having some fun with your staff. The key is to keep it simple - you and your team need to know a few basic facts and practise simple sales techniques.
Sometimes, recommending wine is as simple as saying "the Merlot is very nice". What I am suggesting here is not about compiling a balanced wine list or changing your wine offer - in fact, I am assuming you already have a wine list you feel happy with - but about maximising your sales. If you don't feel confident with wine, keep your wine list small - that way, there is less information to digest. Using a small list, you may want to offer most wines by the glass.
"What wines do you have?" How many times as a customer are we just mutely handed the wine list and left to decide for ourselves? Make sure you introduce a standard response for staff who are asked this question. It may be as simple as: "Do you prefer white, red or rosé?"
The customer's answer narrows down the field a bit, but we need to ask more questions before reciting the entire selection of red wine to a bemused customer or pointing to the relevant section on the list. This is where the tricky stuff begins - we need to know what style of wine the customer prefers, for a start.
So make sure you teach your staff some very basic facts about wine and its common descriptions. Code-marking wines on your wine list can make this easier.
Get the taste
The best way for your staff to identify and learn about wine is to actually taste the stuff, but the problem is that many of them, particularly younger people, may not like wine, and their sweeter palate means they are unlikely to enjoy some flavours. Remind them that they have the opportunity to spit as well as swallow and they will soon come round .
It's also worth reminding them that the biggest wine-consuming market is the 35 to 54 age-range - just because they don't like it doesn't mean they can't sell it .
As it's difficult to co-ordinate full-time and part-time staff for a major training session, I recommend tackling one wine a week in a 20-minute tasting on an ongoing basis. New staff will automatically link to the training and
after just a month will be able to talk confidently about four wines, rather than waiting for the next "proper" training programme.
20-minute wine-tasting
session:
l Introduce the wine
l Practice pronouncing the name if it's tricky - for example, Riesling = "Reezling"; Semillon = "Sem-ee-yon" or Cabernet Sauvignon = "Cab-ur-nay Sew-vin-yon"
l Where does the wine originate? - using a map may help, as geography is not everyone's strong point.
l Encourage your staff to use all four senses when describing wine:
1. Sight - discuss what the wine looks like, including colour depth, such as yellowish or rusty. Consider its clarity, too.
2. Smell - Jilly Goolden has helped to make this a lot of fun. If staff associate "musty socks" or "Christmas pud" aromas with wines, they will be far more likely to remember them.
3. Taste - this should add more information about the wine. You may need to start by using simple prompts. Is it sweet or dry? Can you identify any fruits? Is it rich or light? Is the flavour strong or subtle? Introduce terms such as full-bodied, powerful, delicate, intense, flowery, fruity, oaky, acid, ripe, tannin, honey and spice. Very soon, they will pick up the right skills and all turn into mini-Jillys overnight.
4. Touch - is it smooth and silky like Guinness, or crisp and astringent like lager?
• The main point of the tasting is to have some fun and encourage staff to "buy into" the wine experience. Armed with this basic understanding, your team can feel confident in asking more questions than just: "Would you like white or red?"; for example: "Do you prefer a full-bodied or a delicate wine?" or: "Would you like to try a traditional French or a New World wine?"
l Ask your staff to compile a list of the top five questions they could ask a customer in order that they arrive at the perfect wine
recommendation.
l Matching wine with food - this means that your staff must have a good working knowledge of your menu. To leave as little to chance as possible, it may be an idea to mark each dish on your menu with a suggested wine from your wine list and provide a memory-jogger card that waiting staff can refer to if asked for a wine suggestion by a customer.
Display
Effective wine merchandising is essential - here are five tips to help maximise your sales:
l Choose a prominent, eye-catching position on the back bar
l Select up to four brands - displaying too many dilutes the impact
l Put several facings of the same brand
together to achieve maximum impact
l Use a chalk board or poster to give a brief description of the wine and ensure that boards can be read from a distance
l Display a selection of posters away from the bar - for example, the ladies' loo is a
brilliant place to sell wine. Alternatively, for auto-suggestion, strategically place flyers and/or tent cards on tables to attract your customers' attention.
