New twists on wine lists

OK, pop-quiz time. Desperate times call for: A. Desperate measures

B. Resourceful marketing ideas

C. Thinking smaller

D. A lifeline from suppliers

The answer, of course, is "All of the above" -- at least when it comes to restaurants' wine offerings in a down economy.

The continuing restaurant slump has been a boon for (or helped keep afloat) wine retailers, as a wallet-strapped public opts to eat at home more often and pay retail prices for wines rather than often-massive markups.

Restaurants make a lot of their profits on beverages, but they can't sell wine, beer or soda if there are no customers. So cutting prices and increasing promotions on their liquid assets make sense, especially because their profit margins on food are often minimal.

Some eateries are waiving corkage fees on bottles purchased at nearby wine stores: the Lake Elmo Inn with Cellars and Crave with France 44 (call ahead for details). Others have waived corkage fees altogether (Murray's) or on certain nights (FireLake on Sundays). On Thursdays, Corner Table not only charges just $1 for corkage, but can design a menu around the bottle(s) that customers bring in.

And there are more places than ever, it seems, offering half-price wine nights (for a list, go to startribune.com/blogs/wine).

Green movement

Restaurants are also thinking green, a practice long embraced in both food and wine by organic-oriented restaurants such as Lucia's, Birchwood Cafe and Heartland. In adding more wines made with organic grapes, these places "are responding to customer demand just like they do with naturally grown produce," said Annette Peters, import director for the local wholesaler World Class Wines. "Brenda [Langton, owner of Cafe Brenda and Spoonriver] has been a longtime advocate of this in wine."

Even franchises are hopping on board: Big Bowl recently launched a wine list heavy on fair trade, organic and biodynamic selections.

In the past, many restaurants hereabouts, even high-end ones, have had their general manager take care of the wine along with myriad other duties. Scrambling to deal with a dishwasher who called in sick or a delivery that didn't arrive, in addition to keeping guests and employees happy, makes it difficult to focus on wine.

In many cases, restaurant owners and general managers are either so overwhelmed with other duties or have so little expertise and/or interest in wine that they throw up their arms and have a local wholesaler concoct (and supply) their entire list. That's less common these days, and definitely misguided given how so many wholesalers and wineries are offering up deals.

From the top down

In fact, perhaps the biggest factor driving wine-list changes is better prices and availability from the wineries. With new and/or improved wine coming from all over the globe, the competition has gotten intense, the benefits trickling down to consumers.

"The wineries are really stepping up," said Bill Summerville, who just crafted a wine list for the new restaurant Sea Change, "because they realize people aren't buying their wines."

So we're seeing a lot of previously hard-to-find wines popping up on restaurant lists, and a raft of wines that used to be sold strictly in bottles finding their way into by-the-glass programs.

And not under the old pricing structure, either. The longtime prevalent practice has been for establishments to charge what they paid for an entire bottle for each glass. (The oft-heard rationale: They might sell only one glass before the wine goes bad, so they have to recoup at least their initial cost.)

"Some of these restaurants on the higher end might want to offer Cloudy Bay [a sauvignon blanc that costs $20-plus wholesale). They're not covering the cost of the bottle with a glass; they're going to a lower price," said Stuart Sutherland, sales manager for local wholesaler Johnson Brothers.

"Places like the Capital Grille have been behind that for years, and now you're seeing places like Monte Carlo, Zeno Café and Tavern on Grand offering premium brands [at prices] just above their house brands.

"There are now great by-the-glass programs at all price points," Sutherland said.

Supply exceeds demand

The worldwide glut of wine is a major factor driving this particular form of "downsizing."

"Everybody's producing everything, tempranillo from California, pinot noir from New Zealand," Sutherland said. "The interest level of consumers is high, but the understanding level is a challenge.

"The number of new wine types and new wineries out there means they have to do something to get consumers to try these things. All those premium Napa and Sonoma wineries have very aggressive by-the-glass programs because there's a lot of juice out there."

That means that both the quality and quantity of by-the-glass offerings is on the rise. Hot spots such as the recently opened Trattoria Tosca and W.A. Frost's ever-popular patio have a couple dozen by-the-glass offerings. Even sports bars now have more ambitious by-the-glass programs.

The economy certainly has had its role in determining pricing, noted Summerville. "It's a big restaurant, and we want to fill it. We need to make it affordable, so I was searching for a lot of inexpensive wines, especially by the glass."

In a very real sense, wine purveyors are following the beer and spirits model.

"These all come in 'sample' sizes. The parallel with liquor all being available by the glass, that is happening with wine," Sutherland said. "If you want people to try something new like a torrontés from Argentina, they need to be able to do it on a trial basis by the glass.

"Can you imagine being a consumer and having to buy liquor in a restaurant by the bottle? Spirits would never get off the ground," said Sutherland.