Quality wines can be found in restaurants more and more, and clients come back for them. More wine sections and brands are becoming available.
The sound of corks popping out, the clinking of glasses and the personality that wine sets add to restaurants is a successful trend. Some people even claim that consumers nowadays are choosing restaurants not only for their food but specially for their choices in what concerns to wine.
Sommelier Américo Pereira is of the latter kind: In his opinion more people choose each the restaurants for their wine list and then they “might as well have something to eat”.
Il Gallo D’Oro’s experience, with a Michelin star and an award winning wine list follows this same line. Roberto Caldeira, head of The Cliff Bay’s F&B department, where this restaurant can be found, reveals that some clients choose their wine while having breakfast. Some even choose their wine according to wine grape varieties.
The wine serving ritual goes through many stages: there’s a right way and a right temperature for the wine to be served, as well as its conservation, the price, the number of available choices, the way those wines are conserved, the price they are being sold at, the available information on the menu, the glasses and the connaisseurs’ advice turn a trip to the restaurant into a true experience. And the restaurants seem to be giving these details more and more attention.
The right serving is the key to success. Pedro Camacho, Beef and Wines restaurant owner, defends that “luckily the costumer is becoming aware of the wine glasses and serving temperature’s importance. And this way the client knows that the wine they are enjoying is not only a matter of taste, but also of the way the restaurant handles the wine.’’
Américo Pereira knows this all too well, since he mentions these factors every day in his many wine masterclasses. According to the specialist, there has been “a crescent concern in terms of the right way to conserve the wines, especially regarding the correct temperatures, both of conservation and serving, that are very important for the final result at the table.”
This need to properly conserve and serve wine at the right temperature demands a conservation space, and since it takes a few bottles to fill up a wine set, many restaurants have been betting on brands variety.
There are a few wine set models that allow the client “to see whether or not the wine is well stored and preserved”. It’s a storage system used by several restaurants in Madeira, such as Chalet Vicente, Il Gallo D’Oro, Uva Dining (hotel The Vine) or Beef and Wines.
There are advantages that come from having stored wines on display and the concept ends up working as a sort of marketing strategy, since they encourage compulsive buying, according to the wine’s label design or even according to the buyer’s state of mind. Nélio Ferreira, Chalet Vicente’s sommelier, explains that those who don’t know much about wine tend to choose by the labels, or follows the advice from the sommelier who enlightens the costumer on differences and aromas.
Américo Pereira states that wine sets with the bottles on display register “a sales increase”. He reminds us how important it is that the costumers “get a sense of variety and quality and that encourages the purchase”. But since a wine set is something that requires a very large number of different wines, the restaurants end up having no choice but to enlarge the wine offer.
With around 500 labels, 30 of those in magnum bottle, Chalet Vicente has one of the best wine sets in Madeira. Il Gallo D’Oro has around 320 and Beef and Wines, around 220. Uva Dining has around 150 propositions.
The wine consumption in Madeira increases with the tourist flow. They want to get a full experience in national wines, learn about them and taste different kinds. Roberto Luís, in charge of The Vine’s F&B reminds that “Portugal is a country with a long and strong wine tradition.” Champagnes are the exception.
There is also, naturally, a search for Madeira wines, not only for “the” famous fortified Madeira wine, but also our table wines that have been gaining more and more fans over the years.
Nélio Ferreira makes a point of introducing wines from Madeira to the tourists that he talks to. Judging from Chalet Vicente’s tradition, “wines from our island are the ones we sell best, as there’s a natural curiosity regarding them”, that extends into Portuguese Wines in general.
Another growing trend that is getting restaurants’ attention is the sale of wine by the glass. At Beef and Wines there are 170 options to choose from, including champagnes and sparkling wines. This variety has distinguished this restaurant as having the best “wine by the glass” menu in Portugal. Selling wine by the glass increases rentability and offers to the clients the chance to try more than one brand, or combining the best option possible with the dish being served at the time.
The prices are one of the biggest challenges when it comes to setting up a wine service. Clients are usually au par with the prices and they can sometimes find the same wine in stores or supermarkets. The business professionals state that at a restaurant you’re not only buying a bottle of wine, but also the service, the proper glasses, the environment and the conservation. But price is an important part of the equation and therefore, the need nowadays is to keep improving the Quality/Price ratio. Roberto Luís explains that “some clients might not understand why a wine in a restaurant is more expensive than a store one”, but they value the service.
Américo Pereira believes that for the last 5 years, the tendency has been to lower the prices. This makes people consume more and allows the clients to get access to better wines, at a much more reasonable price. “Many restaurants were overpriced.” This sommelier who is also one of the main wine distributors in Madeira, considers that it is a mixture of pricing, variety, quality and good service what keeps clients coming.
Pedro Camacho, Beef and Wines owner, foresees, in the other hand, a rising tendency in the prices. However, to avoid any comparison with the prices that can be found in stores from his clients, prefers to buy “small production wines that guarantee quality and confidence in the storing procedures.”
All these different factors combined are what turns the wine drinking into a ritual. Pedro Camacho believes that “going to a restaurant should be an experience, and not just to ease the appetite”. And a good part of the experience is being advised in regards to food and wines. After all, and using Américo Pereira’s words, “wines always have their own stories to tell.”
