New Winery & Tasting Room checklist, thoughts, insights etc

[Hokapsig]

Additionally, I'm curious for those commercial wineries that operate their own tasting rooms -- what % of gross revenue do you typically allocate to tasting room operations payroll?

Cheers!

LOL, the lowest paid guy in the company (ME) gets to do most of the tastings. If you're lucky, you may get my wife as she has learned to pour and talk about the wines too.

Seriously, the tasting room staff can either make or break your guest's experience. REMEMBER, you are NOT selling wine in the tasting room, you are selling the EXPERIENCE of wine tasting which should translate into bottle sales. Give the guests a fun, educational and tasty experience. Paying the tasting room staff that provide that experience can not be understated. Let the market and the results determine the pay. We give bonuses to our staff depending on how well we performed at the event.

 

[winemaker81]

Additionally, I'm curious for those commercial wineries that operate their own tasting rooms -- what % of gross revenue do you typically allocate to tasting room operations payroll?

This got me thinking about my experiences, and the answers will vary greatly, and I doubt there is anything resembling a useful answer, other than satisfying curiosity..

I recall one winery in the NY Finger Lakes -- it was literally in the owner's garage. Seriously -- we pulled into their driveway, the door to a 2 car garage was open, and there was a bar, and behind it on the wall, 3 levels of carboys. The owners (man & woman, obviously a couple) were the vineyard managers, picking crew, winemakers, and sales staff. No outside sales, all from their garage. I wish I remembered the name -- it would be cool if they did well.

A lot of tasting rooms have 1 to 3 staff, more on Friday and weekends, which are peak times. Count the FTE staff and take that percentage of staff costs.

REMEMBER, you are NOT selling wine in the tasting room, you are selling the EXPERIENCE of wine tasting which should translate into bottle sales.

Excellent point! The wineries where the tasting room staff is well trained make for the best experience.

 

[Hokapsig]

another trick that we learned how to do is to hold one wine back and use it as your "super Secret Wine of the Day", then let the customer taste it. it becomes a "they can't have it, but now they want it" wine.

We did a mulled wine a few years ago - a dry bitey Chambourcin which was GREAT for mulling. People wanted to taste it as a dry red, but we said no, only for mulling. The customers demanded to taste it as a dry red, and the customer is always right, so we let them. The dry wine customers bought it, the sweet wine customers bought it for mulling, and we were happy when we sold out quicker than anticipated.....

Friends of ours with a distillery in Nashville laughed at us and told us that we were able to sell out of a wine by not giving it to the customers. Reverse psychology or something like that from Psych 101....

 

[Nebbiolo020]

1. SMILE and great your guests. This costs nothing and gets the guest ready to taste your wines. remember, guests can go to any store and buy a wine. They are NOT there just to buy a wine, they are there for the tasting EXPERIENCE. THAT is what you are selling.
2. have a tasting sheet that tells the guest what the wine will taste like. People know tastes, but they can't name the tastes. Give them help with what they are tasting. these sheets should also present the prices of the wines and quantity savings to induce the guest to purchase multiple bottles.
3. Educate your tasting staff. Have the staff know what grapes are in the wines, and what the wines will taste like.
4 Don't overpour. about a half ounce to an ounce for a taste. you don't want intoxicated tasters.
5. suggest alternatives. Some people won't like a wine, that's fine, that's why you taste wine. if you don't like this, try this.
6. we always ask what kind of wines the guest usually drinks. The tasting staff should know the wines and be able to suggest a wine to be in the neighborhood of what the guest usually drinks.
7. showcase your different wines. Everyone has a dry red, dry white, sweet red, sweet white. Show off a different blend, a different oak finish, a different fruit wine. What wine will you be known for???
8. Have the winemaker/assistant winemaker/cellar rat available (someone who knows some "inside" information about the wines. People are going to buy and many times share the bottle with friends. They want an interesting tidbit to impress the friends about the wine to justify the purchase of the wine.

these are things that work for us and gives us the competitive advantage. We make good wines, but by no means the best wines, but we have learned to SELL the wines. THAT will help make your winery a success.

I’m a winemaker and I would go hang out with customers in the tasting room when I didn’t have stuff going on in the winery and talk to them about the wines we sold a lot more wine because of it I had a wealthy older lady buy $5,000 of wine in one go because we had talked about wine for about a hour and apparently I made a good impression.

 

[winemaker81]

I’m a winemaker and I would go hang out with customers in the tasting room when I didn’t have stuff going on in the winery and talk to them about the wines we sold a lot more wine because of it I had a wealthy older lady buy $5,000 of wine in one go because we had talked about wine for about a hour and apparently I made a good impression.

I'm not surprised -- even folks that don't know much about wine will be pleased to have someone to talk to who sounds like they know what they're doing. And if the winery employee really does know the nuts-n-bolts? It's even better. Congrats on the sales!

It also works the other way. A few years back I was in Wagner winery in the NY Finger Lakes with my niece and her husband (the DD). An older gentlemen was behind the bar, and he was none too friendly. My niece and I started talking wine making, and the guy discovered we were not typical tourists, and he provided detailed explanations for each wine, far beyond what a typical tourist could understand. We were supposed to get samples of 6 wines. I think he poured everything they made. It was REALLY good that we had a DD.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

I'm not surprised -- even folks that don't know much about wine will be pleased to have someone to talk to who sounds like they know what they're doing. And if the winery employee really does know the nuts-n-bolts? It's even better. Congrats on the sales!

It also works the other way. A few years back I was in Wagner winery in the NY Finger Lakes with my niece and her husband (the DD). An older gentlemen was behind the bar, and he was none too friendly. My niece and I started talking wine making, and the guy discovered we were not typical tourists, and he provided detailed explanations for each wine, far beyond what a typical tourist could understand. We were supposed to get samples of 6 wines. I think he poured everything they made. It was REALLY good that we had a DD.

My friend does that, everytime I go to his winery he pours everything new he’s trying usually some strange blend that he cooked up. He went to high school with my sister though so that might play into the somewhat better treatment