Flightly Thoughts

Organising a wine tasting at home involves a lot of work, whereas restaurants are uniquely placed to offer the service in-house. Apart from the storage issue, all the set-up costs are already in place

THEY ARE big in the States, provide theatre, give choice to the customer and educate in a non-invasive way.  Yet wine flights – a selection of small glasses of different wines centred around a theme – remain almost non-existent in the UK.  It doesn’t make sense. 

At a time when customers are drinking less but often better wines, this seems like a golden opportunity to encourage experimentation.  How many people are scanning your wine list looking for the familiar? How many then branch out and try something unusual, different, challenging? Probably not as many as would do if you were there to persuade them.

It is a constant source of utter amazement to me that, despite the often indulgent environment of restaurants, so little effort is made to pamper the customers.  They want to spend – mostly – and enjoy to the full what is an increasingly lifestyle-led rather than occasion-based experience.

Ah well, I hear you say, that is all very well, but does it make money? It’s difficult to say, according to Sam Thackery at Isola in London, one of the few restaurants in this country where they take wine flights seriously.

Isola currently offers two flights, a red and a white, and is looking to increase this to four.  The main obstacle to overcome, according to Thackery, is the storage issue of open bottles. And that does need investment.

However, once put in place, flights are as commercially rewarding as full bottles.  Training is obviously an issue, as are the people skills involved.  Not everyone can read situations well and while one table might well be open to the idea, another may well be very negative about their evening being dominated by a focus on wine that is simply not relevant.

But this is a very black and white approach to an industry built more on subtleties and nuances. We all know a good wine list when we see one, yet the actions that make a wine list really stand out are often small, imperceptible almost.

Wine flights can fulfil that role, an extra that provides interest and excitement but doesn’t dominate.  Looking to Isola again, Thackery points out that the staff really get a buzz out of selling them.  They look attractive on their metal stands and act as a focus and talking point.

In the US, wine flights have really taken off in a big way and one of the main proponents has been Debbie Zachareas, head of wine at Bacar in San Francisco, who is the first to hook on to the theatre of it all.  She is quick to point out that, even if only a few tables partake, it adds atmosphere to an evening that can increasingly seem formulaic to a public that now sees eating out as the norm.

Debbie’s main motivation, however, is a wish to see all her fantastic wines explored.  Customers often simply do not have the courage or conviction to stray from a well worn path, she says.  They really do want you to organise it for them.

Underwriting the general enthusiasm is the idea of experimentation coupled with low volume. The quantity that people drink is falling.  This change is happening on the back of tougher drink/driving laws and on health grounds and restaurateurs should see this as something to celebrate rather than lament.

Isola is looking to put on a flight of Barolos in the autumn which seems to me to make fantastic sense.  Investing in a serious bottle of Barolo over dinner is not a decision to be taken lightly.  We are often far too serious about wine, the world too readily divided into those "in the know" and those who profess to know nothing.

Between these two extremes there is plenty of opportunity and, let’s face it, many who think they know lots could still benefit greatly from further experimentation.  Exposed, as we are, to so much choice these days, it is only through comparative tasting that we can really explore.

I tasted three smoked salmons the other day with a group of chefs.  All were delicious but all distinctly different.  Would I do that at home? No way.  And this is an aspect it might be sensible to consider.

Organising a wine tasting at home involves work, whereas restaurants are uniquely placed to offer the service inhouse.  Apart from the storage issue they have all the set-up costs already in place.  Maybe it’s an opportunity for early week selling? Wine flights and supper for a fixed price.  Now that sounds like a good way to start the week.

Hugo Arnold is a food writer and restaurant consultant (www.hugoarnold.com)