Hand selling wines? How do you choose?
I was reading an article on Wine Searcher about Italian Wines* and the growth of lesser known grape varietals etc and one Importer saying that Nerello is essentially a Hand-sell.
It got me thinking - always dangerous - as to how many wines are 'Hand-Sells'.
Hand Sell : To sell an item by making personal contact with the customer to showcase the item and build rapport : according to one definition.
So we find a truly wonderful and different wine from Planet X, buy it in and promote it as new, exciting, interesting etc to our customers. But for how long? If it is really good, we just order more when stocks are low.
But the following week, we find another really good and interesting wine not made from Sauvignon Blanc or Merlot so we promote it. And then the following week, another wine ....
My question - and I have worked in Wine Retail for 40 years - is how long do I push/promote/recommend Wine A before moving to Wine B? And then, what do I do with the remaining stock of Wine A?
Basically, we think that in a retail environment, every wine should sell itself! While happy to recommend new wines to regulars, we can't be pushing wines on customers just because it's in stock. Once we sell it, we order more and the vicious circle continues.
As an aside, we were once asked how many new wines we listed after a large Wine Tasting Event. We replied 6, but we delisted 8 where we didn't like the new vintage/price/taste etc
Christ, we oenophiles are an obnoxious bunch !
*did you know that there are 50,000 Italian restaurants in USA? I didn't either but I'll admit that I didn't miss anything by not knowing. As Basil Fawlty said 'You mistake me for someone who gives a damn!'
It got me thinking - always dangerous - as to how many wines are 'Hand-Sells'.
Hand Sell : To sell an item by making personal contact with the customer to showcase the item and build rapport : according to one definition.
So we find a truly wonderful and different wine from Planet X, buy it in and promote it as new, exciting, interesting etc to our customers. But for how long? If it is really good, we just order more when stocks are low.
But the following week, we find another really good and interesting wine not made from Sauvignon Blanc or Merlot so we promote it. And then the following week, another wine ....
My question - and I have worked in Wine Retail for 40 years - is how long do I push/promote/recommend Wine A before moving to Wine B? And then, what do I do with the remaining stock of Wine A?
Basically, we think that in a retail environment, every wine should sell itself! While happy to recommend new wines to regulars, we can't be pushing wines on customers just because it's in stock. Once we sell it, we order more and the vicious circle continues.
As an aside, we were once asked how many new wines we listed after a large Wine Tasting Event. We replied 6, but we delisted 8 where we didn't like the new vintage/price/taste etc
Christ, we oenophiles are an obnoxious bunch !
*did you know that there are 50,000 Italian restaurants in USA? I didn't either but I'll admit that I didn't miss anything by not knowing. As Basil Fawlty said 'You mistake me for someone who gives a damn!'