Michael Mondavi Talks Wine Lists: Excite Your Customers

In today’s economy, we can all sit around and be incredibly negative or we can look for new and inspired ways to improve. Improve the way we do business. Improve our relationships with our customers. Improve the way we excite people.

Bistro Don Giovanni on Highway 29 in Napa Valley saw a significant decrease in bottle sales, and turned it into a winning situation. In the past, 85 to 90 percent of all their wine was sold by the bottle. However, starting in March and April 2008 their bottle sales dropped significantly while sales of their glass pours began to increase.

To get bottle sales back up, they added two new pages to their list which featured ‘29 wines for 29 dollars at Bistro Don Giovanni on Highway 29’. Almost like a light switch in the next few days 80 to 90 percent of the tables had a bottle of wine.

“The surprise they got out of it was that over 25 percent of their sales were the more expensive wines from the full body of their list. So they stimulated selling 29 dollar bottles, and it also stimulated the sale of their higher end bottled wine,” said Michael Mondavi who was recently in Seattle promoting Folio Fine Wine Partners.

Chef Michael Chiarello of Food Network fame and a Napa Valley icon opened the doors to a Napa Valley restaurant in March 2009. He did a different concept with his wine list, where he figured the industry standard 30 percent markup was not going to work in a Napa restaurant in today’s economy. Instead, he put the cheapest wines on his list at a 20 percent markup and gave his higher priced wines a 1.5 percent markup.

What has happened is that some of his competitors who did not lower their prices have a bottle for 150 dollars and ten miles down the road Chiarello has that same bottle for 75 dollars.

“People are looking at Chiarello’s list and saying ‘I saw this wine on the list somewhere else for 150 dollars’. People are trading up and celebrating and buying more expensive wines because of the way he priced his wine list,” said Mondavi.

“All I’m trying to suggest is each of you has unique customers and unique environments. I suggest that all of us from the restaurant standpoint have to look at pricing and figure out what you need to do to excite and entice your consumer to trade up and enjoy better wines with their friends while they are dining in your restaurant,” Mondavi further went on to say.

Each answer is going to be different. The answer to Don Giovanni and Michael Chiarello’s solution will be different than yours. I urge you to take a look at this study and figure out how you can entice your customers.

What ideas are working for your restaurant or business in today’s economy?