As an increasing
number of Americans pop the cork,
retailers are looking to wine tastings –
either as separate events or ongoing programs
– as a way to attract clients to the
store and, eventually, the cash register.
At retail, the art of product sampling as
an enticement to buy is an old one. But
wine tastings, where a few bottles are set
out as samples for customers to try, have
the potential to be much more effective
than sausage on a stick. These events aren’t
just a way to make a fast buck on whatever
you’re pushing that week: they can produce
more knowledgeable, loyal customers, the
kind who will regard your store as a gathering
place and a resource as much as they will
rely on it as a retail establishment.
Depending on your store type, wine tasting
programs can be either a stylistic necessity
or a nice bonus for ordinary shoppers.
At Hi-Time Wine Cellars in Costa
Mesa, California – a family-owned store
with 24,000 square feet of retail space
and a 3,000 square-foot temperature
controlled wine cellar – it’s the former.
Tastings take place three times a
week in the store’s wine bar, featuring up to
a dozen different wines.
“There is more of a hands-on mentality, where
people really want to decide for themselves what
they like and what they want to taste,” observes
Dan Rhodes, Hi-Time’s French wine buyer.
“There is also a growing awareness of wine
matching, and that’s really good, because it gets
people off the main path. A wine bar can help to
introduce people to new things.”
Rhodes creates specific themes for each tasting,
often by region, grape variety, or wine type.
“There are a lot of different things that you can
do, and the more creative you are, the more
your clients appreciate it,” he advises. Tastings at
Hi-Times are also seasonal: Rhodes won’t,
for example, conduct a Sauvignon Blanc tasting
during the middle of winter.
BLM Wine + Spirits in Boston, Massachusetts,
holds tastings every Saturday. Usually
featuring about nine wines, a table is arranged
so that the tasting glasses are placed in front
of the bottle, enabling the customer to look at
and smell the wine. Roger Ormon, BLM’s wine
manager, provides a sheet with a two-to-three
paragraph blurb on each wine, listing grape
varieties, facts about the region, how the wine
is made and interesting highlights about the
winemaker. A tasting coordinator behind the
table focuses on how the wine tastes, but also
pushes for incremental sales by talking about
its relationship to food.
“They will draw
people out so that they can express
what they think about the wine, and what
they would serve it with,” he says, adding
that customers will also talk amongst
themselves. “It’s very informal. Some
people go through all the wines in a hurry,
while other will taste one or two. Some will
talk for half an hour to 45 minutes to leisurely
go through all of the wines.”
Servers don’t necessarily need to possess
the in-depth knowledge of a master
sommelier, but they should be equipped
with a number of basic facts on grape varieties,
regions and background on the
wineries themselves.
“The real critical component, as far as the
in-store operations go, is to make sure that
there are wine-knowledgeable people out
there selling the product,” emphasizes Scott
D. Kamp, corporate wine buyer for grocery
chain Meijer, Inc, headquartered in Grand
Rapids, Michigan. “If someone is selling
wine and they don’t understand it the
way they should, you can get into trouble
quickly because you lose credibility. People
who really like wine will quickly pick
up on it when someone doesn’t know
what they are talking about.”
Meijer works closely with its suppliers
in organizing their tastings, which
usually take place on Friday evenings and Saturday afternoons, to make the most
of high-traffic times. Those conducting the
tastings are usually supplied by the winery,
but Kamp underlines that, even if a tasting coordinator
is from outside your establishment,
they should be familiar with your store before
they hit the floor.
“They are the face of the retailer to the customer,”
he says. “It’s important that they are
knowledgeable about that entire department,
and they really should have some level of familiarity
with the store as a whole. If you are
sampling wine in the wine department, there
will always be someone who asks you where the
cheese is. That’s going to happen – especially
with a supercenter format like Meijer.”