PORT: Poor service

The UK’s restaurants and bars – with some commendable exceptions – are letting this undervalued category down badly, writes Patrick Schmitt.

The on-trade is beset with difficulties for drinks suppliers and brand owners. There’s the time and manpower needed to develop contacts in the fragmented market, the support required when listings are secured, the sometimes low stock turnover, and then the risk the outlet will fall into the hands of creditors before payment has been made.

So why do alcohol labels persist with the market which, relative to retail, shifts such small volumes? The reasons are simple: restaurants and bars play a key role in raising the profile of brands – associating a product with a famous outlet can add credibility – while a prominent place on a list, particularly by the glass, is often the only way to get people to sample a product in perfect condition.

Considering the effort involved, expense, but also opportunity, it must therefore be immensely frustrating for fortified wines that so few in the on-trade appear to get it right. Trawling through lists online, reviewing openings, and visiting places across the country, the array of pricings and positionings for Port is astounding – after all it is a hardly a little-known newcomer to the world of drinks.

Part of this could of course be ascribed to its complexity. The once two-pronged UK Port sector, with vintage and ruby, has proliferated into a diverse offering, perhaps confusing for those that haven’t the time to study it or space to represent it.

On the other hand, that diversity, incorporating the likes of LBV and single quinta, is comprehensive, and offers restaurateurs solutions at key mid-market price points. Then there’s wood ports – tawny and colheita – which, with a range of age statements, offer greater food-pairing opportunities, as well as the chance for summertime sales when correctly served; that is chilled.

But even where the category is well represented, so often the handling is wrong. In particular, there’s the marked variation in pricing and measure size. The debate over employing a cash margin or gross profit model aside, measures are notably mean for prices charged in many outlets.

Only two months ago, Paul Symington, writing in the drinks business (July 2010), suggested that vintage Port should be drunk in a large Riedel glass and appreciated for what it is: “an incredibly fine, elegant and complex wine that reflects the beautiful region from which it comes”.

Although he didn’t specify the quantity, 50ml, as served in some places, would barely wet the base of any serious wine glass. Of course it might look generous in the schooners that still, sadly, persist.

Even when a suitable serving size is chosen, 75ml being an absolute minimum (a soon-to-be revised UK Weights and Measures act allowing), prices are commonly just too high for a quick turnover – which is necessary to retain freshness in bottle-aged Ports.

As Andrew Sinclair from González Byass UK, agents for Quinto do Noval, says, “The key for the on-trade is selling fortified wine at a fair price. Don’t try to extract too chunky a GP, treat it like a wine, and you’ll get repeat purchase.”

Similarly, Martin Lam, chef and proprietor at Ransome’s Dock, points out the importance of a reasonably priced by-the-glass Port offering, not least because, as he says, “Nobody buys a bottle of Port any more and shares it round the table – that’s history.”

Pricing problems

As for pricing specifically, he adds, “I think it’s important not to punish the customer if they order a drink that is going to be sold almost exclusively by the single measure and there’s no chance of upselling to a bottle, but a lot of restaurants are still charging unfair prices for fortified wines. We don’t look for higher margins with fortified wines.”

Certainly Mark Symonds at John E Fells, Symington Family Estate’s UK agent, stresses the pricing problem for Port. “Some restaurants seem to massively overprice Port, a glass of wine might be £5, but a glass of Port is £20.”

And there’s a good reason not to price Port prohibitively. Single quinta or vintage Port at the end of a meal, or possibly chilled tawny at the beginning, are – and should be regarded as – an incremental sale. It will add to the spend, not take from other drinks categories.

“There is a profit opportunity,” says Alan Montague-Dennis, prestige business manager at Mentzendorff, UK agents for The Fladgate Partnership, owner of Taylor’s. “It is giving the punter a chance to try something new and will encourage repeat business,” he explains, adding, “people are more knowledgeable but not that knowledgeable – and offering something they haven’t tried before that’s relatively inexpensive will tempt them back to try something else.”

He even believes that among a younger audience without preconceived ideas about Port or fortified wines in general, having a good range in this category can improve an outlet’s reputation, lending it a “funky” feel. Also, Port is an affordable way to achieve this compared to increasingly pricey fine wines from classic regions such as Bordeaux, Burgundy, Tuscany or Napa.

Aside from sensible pricing, generous measures, a good range by the glass, and chilling wood Ports, several in the trade stress the need to treat opened Ports with greater care, and use, for example, a Vacuvin for ruby and vintage Ports, like one would for wine.

Then there’s the option to be a little more innovative. “You can actually drink Sherry, Madeira or Port before or actually with food,” stresses Montague-Dennis. Talking of lunchtime trade he continues, “People are saying they’ll only have two glasses because they are on a budget and they’ve got to get back to work and so are looking at fortified wine by the glass, for instance a chilled 20-year-old tawny with foie gras or crème caramel.”

Interestingly, Montague-Dennis says that the most innovative establishments, when it comes to Port, are not necessarily the classic top London hotels such as The Ritz or Goring – which tend to focus on Champagne sales – but what he calls “the independent foodie restaurants”.

This is a view supported by Symonds, who highlights a couple of restaurants in west London – Charlotte Place in Ealing and Fish Hook in Chiswick – which have introduced a flight of three different Port styles matched to three different puddings: 25ml measures are paired with small portions.

Then there’s The Don, which, in keeping with its site in the former cellar of George Sandeman’s Port, Sherry and wine company, has an extensive collection of fortified wines by the glass, and its sister restaurant, The Bleeding Heart, is also noted for its sales of Port.

Symonds also applauds the Davy’s Wine Bar chain, “who do a lot of Ports by the glass, such as chilled Otima, and evening Port tastings for consumers,” as well as the D&D Group’s range of restaurants, and Eyre Brothers on the edge of the City.

But it does seem that it’s the more formal establishments that actually shift the greatest volumes of Port, such as Le Gavroche or Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley, according to Montague Dennis, who also singles out Koffmann’s, the new restaurant at the latter Knightsbridge hotel, which is even serving Port and tonic using Taylor’s Chip Dry white.

Similarly upmarket is The Bath Priory hotel, which, says Sinclair, “is about to launch a good Port list with colheitas and 20-year-old tawny, as well as Quinta do Noval 2003 vintage, all by the glass”. This addition has been prompted, Sinclair says, by the arrival of Victor Amaro from Hotel du Vin. And, the latter hotel chain, he records “is pretty good with Port,” helped by the fact wine director Ronan Sayburn MS is “an admirer” of the fortified category.

Meanwhile, notably good lists in terms of pure scope are Covent Garden’s Clos Maggiore and Mayfair’s The Greenhouse, both of which provide an exciting and broad selection of Port, and outstanding by-the-glass offers. Symonds also picks out One Lombard Street, which has four Ports by the glass prominently on the menu, although no vintage offering in the chosen 100ml measure, not even a single quinta.

Maze is another outlet that many rate for its fortified offering including Port, boosted by the fact the head sommelier at the Maze Grill, Boris Poliakov, is from The Don.

And the fact that Port suppliers record successes in a mix of traditional fine dining outlets and new, more informal restaurants highlights the flexibility of this undervalued category. It also points to an ongoing evolution away from, in the words of Robert Giorgione, wine consultant, sommelier and communicator, “clubs, colonels, and general stuffiness”. Rather, he adds, “Port has modernised its image.”

Inspiration and education

However, as noted at the outset, there are problems with serving Port still permeating the on-trade, suggesting brand owners and suppliers may not be doing enough to educate the bar and restaurant sector.

Looking elsewhere to Sherry, although it is a category with many setbacks, those in the Douro may want to mimic at least some of the Sherry Institute’s activity to improve the treatment of the Spanish fortified in the UK on-trade – and perhaps take inspiration from its sommelier-chef competition Copa Jerez. There’s little doubt that Sherry’s on-trade focus has helped reinvent a much misunderstood category, if not, yet, stemmed the declining volume sales.

However, Symonds does speak of Symington food-matching evenings with Port and Douro wines for sommeliers – and interestingly, it could be the region’s unfortified offerings that could reignite enthusiasm. “The two work to each other’s mutual benefit,” he says.

“It helps sommeliers think of the Douro as more of a wine-producing region and heightens their awareness of the area, which [in turn] increases their interest in things Portuguese, and Port is a natural extension.” On the other hand, he adds, “the Port drinker might want to try wines from the Douro Valley”.

This latter observation does lead one to wonder whether Port’s on-trade marketing and educational message should focus more on the region, the Douro. This might further distance it from the still lingering image of dusty sideboards and decanters, while encouraging sommeliers to treat Port, as Symington suggests, like a wine. However, for now, it’s food matching that’s driving exploration of this famous fortified category. db

Patrick Schmitt, September 2010