Don’t be Listless

In recent years an emerging band of consultants has given birth to a more enlightened approach to creating wine lists

WINE LISTS are a bitof a giveaway.  Like fingerprints – or increasingly in our technology driven lives, retina recognition or dna makeup – they signal as clearly as a bell the hand of the creator.

There is no denying the increasing complexities of the restaurant business – red tape is only partly to blame – but this is no excuse to give up on creating a wine list.  Next to the menu it is an entry point for every customer, a signal to them of who and what you are.

Despite the endless column inches written on the subject, wine remains for many a complex, difficult and frustrating subject. Labels, vintages, emerging countries, disappearing ones as well as grape varieties often seem to conspire against any fundamental grasp of the subject. But the last thing you should do is hand the job over to one supplier. Or should you?

In recent years an emerging band of consultants has given birth to a more enlightened approach to creating wine lists.  If you are not up to speed why not farm out the selecting of your list to somebody else?  That person can also, surprisingly, be a merchant.

Willie Lebus of Bibendum, a man who’s fondness for wine is matched only by his colourful range of shirts and ties, introduced the radical idea of selling not only his own wines on to restaurant lists, but also those of other merchants some years ago.

Others include Robert Wheatcroft at Morris and Verdun and Richard Lashbrook at Thorman and Hunt.  These gentlemen may operate individually, but they exist because of the restaurant business – remember, you are the ones driving them.

At first this seems a rather odd thing to do. In your own establishment you are hardly likely to encourage customers to skip dessert and head off somewhere else to round off their evening, but it signals just how complex the industry now is.  And also how creative it has become.

Skill levels in some areas are depressingly low, but in other areas incredibly creative people are being attracted into the industry, tempted by the ability to work with other like-minded souls to improve the lot of British diners.

In the old days you looked to your regular merchants to supply you with a product.  And in the world of wine it used to be about as straightforward as it could possibly get: Burgundy or Claret, white or red? But the new millennium is upon us and these days the business is far more about trust and partnership, creativity and expression.

Supply has also been a problem for those outside urban areas, where logistics can conspire to drive you towards one merchant. Resist, resist, resist.  Even the introduction of a few other wines will assist in stamping your own individuality on a list and there is every reason to make your current supplier do that work for you.

Much is being made of the idea of outsourcing at the moment.  Wage costs and skill levels are making many question every aspect of the business.  Where a chef used to have to master butchery skills, all of that has been pushed out to suppliers. 

Even the use of central kitchens is creeping into the upper end of the middle market where many said it would never go. What isdifferent this time around is not what is being done, but how it is being done.

The most common complaint from most operators is a lack of time, not so much to greet and serve customers, but actually to sit back and take stock of what you are doing and where you are going with your business.

The only way to make space for this crucial kind of activity is to outsource as much as you creatively can.  But you cannot afford to wash your hands of something as major as a wine list.

Challenging every decision your creatively inspired merchant makes is hardly cost effective, but you don’t have to perform the operation that often to keep them on their toes. An eye on the trade and the odd well-respected wine writer will flag up possible ideas.

The next step is to attend a tasting or two, or visit one of the trade shows and taste what you currently have against what you might have. 

Of course the other way of short-circuiting this whole procedure is to find somebody you trust and ask them to do the tasting for you.  If that person already delivers your wine, listens to you, understands your business and responds well to both positive and negative inputs then surely that is a good thing.  It certainly frees you up to focus on other areas.

Hugo Arnold is a food writer and restaurant consultant

(www.hugoarnold.com)