Our little restaurant carrys 34 kinds of wine.  All along we offered them by the glass, all of them.  Once opened, we use corks that you pump a bit of the air out.  We didn't know until recently that reds are considered bad/stale after a few days.  Some people say whites have a short life too.  With the volume we sell it takes alot longer than that to empty a bottle.  Should we just sell the wines by the bottle or pehaps offer just a couple by the glass?

We are in a "workin' mans" town of 11,000 where wine is considered hoity-toity.

I think it's time you took a hard look at your wine sales and decide which are your stars and dogs.

If you've got 34 different wines, all bottled, and aren't selling enough to keep turning them over, you've got too many.  It's that simple.  You've got two choices: Increase your sales substantially or reduce your options.  Not only will you see a savings in the initial outlay of money, you'll also free up refrigerator/stowage space.

Another option is increase the use of "leftover" wine in the kitchen.

Ciao,

You can't expect to be a success opening a Maserati dealership in a blue collar town. The same goes for wine.

34 wines by the glass is a lot for any restaurant. For a town of 11,000, it just sounds like too many choices. I think you're finding that out. No offense, but I also question your ability to manage that type of wine selection if you don't even know when your wine is past it's prime.

Maybe you should reevaluate what type of restaurant your market can support, and what type of restaurant you have the expertise to run. Your menu and beverage selections need to fit your market. You must also be knowledgable in whatever you decide to sell. If you're not, there is no way you can be providing the quality of product people expect when they order that type of product.

Were you "sold" on these wine selections by your sales rep? Did they offer any training to you or your staff? Liquor companies have enormous resources to offer training on their products. Brandon is right. take a look at your sales and reevaluate your wine list. I run a steakhouse with almost 400 seats in a city with 6.5 million people and I don't have 34 wines by the glass.

I agree with the others - that's simply too many !   Analyze your sales and keep the top sellers.  We have a small place, and our alcohol sales are low, about 5% of total sales.  We only offer three varieties (though we're adding a fourth). 

Good luck!

We use the corks that are supposed to keep the wine fresh as well, but after two days on a red we poor it out, the bartender writes the date on the lable when he/she opens it.  The whites will last about 4-5 days. 

We offer our house ($2.89 bottle cost) by the glass $6 and then only one other of each varietal by the glass.  I price the wines by the glass as close to the bottle cost as possible.  The mark-up on the house will help on the wastage of your other wines by the glass.

As Brandon said know your market, will your patrons be willing to spend $8 a glass or $14.  If you feel they are in the $8-$9 range, then offer the wines that fall into that cost catagory by the glass.  We run about a 36% wine cost, mostly due to the mark-up of our house wines for the restaurant and banquets.

We do end up pouring out a lot of wine, be sure the wine by the glass will move.  Pair your menu items with your wines by the glass and print them on your menu. Educate your servers (sales people) on wine knowledge, I post a blurb about wine, beer, whiskey or food weekly on the bulliten board  Your distributer should be happy send a trainer out for a wine seminar. 

The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over.  -HST