Greene King has launched a new service for licensees aimed at taking the mystery out of wine by providing guidance to further their knowledge.
The Wine and Spirits Toolkit is aimed at supporting operators to drive sales of a category which can be a challenge to licensees who may feel they lack the specialist expertise or confidence to put the right range together.
The service is available free of charge to all licensees in the Pub Partners estate and guides through the whole process of compiling and producing a bespoke wine list which is then printed for free.
The toolkit also provides guidance on the art of matching wines to all the major food groups, fish, pasta, meat, poultry and cheese, so that guests can be pointed in the right direction when choosing a drink alongside a meal.
Licensees are given a step-by-step guide with recommendations for wines that would be appropriate pairings and explains why they have been chosen so that this can be explained to customers.
In the hospitality sector, wine is growing faster than many other drinks, driven by Prosecco's popularity, but also reflective of guests being keen to try wines from around the world.
The toolkit tells how to create a wine list from scratch with advice on glass sizes and setting the right margins when it comes to pricing.
Among the advice given is to number wines to avoid guests having any pronunciation concerns as well as including tasting notes with indicators, dry to sweet for white wine and light to full body for red.
The toolkit also partners with Fever Tree who offer range guidance and other specialist gin cocktail menus to help licensees sell gin in their pubs.
Clive Chesser, Managing Director of Greene King Pub Partners, said, 'This service is designed to educate licensees about wine in a positive and unpretentious way. It is a service designed to help run a business better by embracing wine.
'The benefit for our licensees from this specialist training is to give them a better understanding of wine, its different styles and characteristics, and a greater awareness of how to present and serve it, including pairing it with food.
'For those who wish to learn more there is additional in-pub training as well as wine courses which again appreciate it can be an area where people have different levels of expertise.'
