Selling Wine to Restaurants - Essential Tips
After a few days on the road, here are a few, hopefully useful, takeaways.
“That’s the first time I’ve heard anyone say that in a long time”
This response, from my distributor’s area sales representative, last week, took me by surprise. All I’d said, as we headed out on a tour of potential customers, was that I fully appreciated that my K’AVSHIRI wines wouldn’t be an easy sell.
Now, a pricy set of limited-production, multi-vintage wines with an unfamiliar brand name, produced in Georgia from a whole load of unpronounceable grape varieties, using techniques most people have never heard of, has to be one of the tougher wine sells. But, when I thought about it, how much easier are wines from any of Europe’s hundreds of lesser-known appellations? At least mine have an eye-catching label and a bit of a story behind them.
To be blunt, in a crowded market, unless it comes with a combination of big reputation and low price, a 95-point score and a connection to George Clooney, or a huge marketing budget, I’m not sure if any wine is an easy sell, no matter how delicious it may taste.
Our day went well because the rep had taken the care to choose restaurants whose cuisine and wine lists already leaned towards adventurous styles, so there was a greater openness from the somm or restaurateur than there might have been elsewhere. They knew their customers might be up for trying something different.
This may seem obvious, but I’ve lost count of the number of producers who’ve looked totally blank when I’ve asked them who they think their wines are for.
Show and tell
Given the many aspects of K’AVSHIRI’s production that set it apart, we also craved a few moments of the somms’ time to show them a video that explains precisely what sets these wines apart. Hopefully, making the points visually was more memorable - and quicker - than doing it orally, or even by flicking through PowerPoint slides.
I am now in Georgia starting work with a talented photographer/ videographer on some hopefully great harvest images and footage that we can use to give a flavour of Georgia as a place. But until we have that, I relied on what we already had.
Filling the vacuum
As we continued our tour, I discovered that we also benefited from an additional secret weapon. Initially, the plan had been just to take along the white and red assemblages, but the rep and I had also independently decided to bring along the first release of the rosé, which our importer had not yet officially agreed to list. With an initial production of just 2,500 bottles (compared to 25,000 for the other two wines), this wine could be described as experimental, but of the three, it had an advantage.
Lots of restaurants, it seems, are looking for a super-premium pink wine that doesn’t look and taste like Whispering Angel. Our darker-hued, fuller-bodied, near-clairet style appeared to fill a potentially profitable vacuum. Where to put it on the list? one person wondered, before homing in on the idea of creating a new heading: ‘Not Provence’.
These positive reactions from several target customers were encouraging, but at best, they may still only lead to getting the wine into some of their cellars. One still has to move it that extra step: onto the tables. Clearly, enthusing the staff is key to this, but it’s no silver bullet. They - and their customers - almost certainly already have wines they know and like. Why should they switch to a new one that may take more time and effort to explain during a service session when other tables are calling for attention? And this is presuming we’re talking about restaurants with better-than-average staff retention.
If they like that…
One tactic I employed was to encourage the somm or servers to imagine for themselves where, in the wide range of styles of wine, mine might most closely fit. The majority opinion was that the white is like a love child of north-east Italy (Alto Adige or Friuli freshness) and the fleshiness of a white Northern Rhône, though Godello and ‘serious white Vinho Verde’ were also suggested. The red also struck tasters as being quite Italian (serious modern Valpolicella or Ruche), but again with a Rhôney note and possibly some kinship with top-end cru Beaujolais.
Is this exercise going to help them/us sell more bottles? I cannot say, but I’m hoping that knowing a diner is already leaning towards those styles will make it easier to propose our wines as logical alternatives, rather than simply saying, ‘Hey, how would you like to try an unfamiliar wine from Georgia?’
