Educated wine connoisseurs are poring over restaurant wine selections, boosting sales

By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer

If you haven’t sampled an Alabarino from Spain, never heard of a Gruner Veltliner and don’t understand all the hype about pinot noir, you’re out of step with a growing number of Americans who have become obsessed with the fermented juice of the humble grape.

U.S. sales of wine from California, other states and foreign producers grew 5% in 2005 to an estimated 703 million gallons, valued at $26 billion. Figures released by California’s Wine Institute, a promotional association of 887 California wineries and related businesses, revealed U.S. wine sales last year to be more than eight times stronger than in 1975, when sales were $3.3 billion.

With more Americans drinking wine than ever before, Charleston-area restaurants are meeting the trend with expanded wine lists and, in one case, a reserve wine list to supplement an existing wine list.

Maverick Southern Kitchens launched a special reserve list in May at its downtown Charleston restaurants, High Cotton and Slightly North of Broad. The 32 wines featured on the current list are either rare or highly sought-after and usually in short supply, so the list changes weekly.

Patrick Emerson, a sommelier, or wine steward, for the Maverick restaurants said response to the reserve list has been phenomenal.

“Pricing on the list is from $60 to $500, but the qualities we’re looking for are either back vintage—older wines from good vintages—or rare wines,” Emerson said. “I have no interest in putting together a list that no one is going to order from, that’s too pretentious or that’s just there for image.”

For most restaurants with a good wine program, wine sales are about 18% of total sales, Emerson said, but Maverick’s wine sales have climbed to 21% in the past several years. An increasing number of the restaurant’s guests are reading wine critics and publications such as Wine Spectator magazine, he said.

“There really has been an earthquake shift in people’s knowledge and appreciation of wine,” Emerson said. “I’ve been in Charleston two years, and just in that short time it’s shocking to me how much things have changed, how consumers are much more knowledgeable about the wines they select. You can no longer guarantee that the young couple that look like they’re in college are not going to order a $200 bottle of wine.”

The Scarborough Wine Market Report, a national survey of U.S. wine consumers completed in 2003, revealed that 25% of wine purchasers were between the ages of 21 and 34, and 45% between the ages of 35 and 54. The report also indicated that the wine consumer is more affluent and better educated than the average American, with 33% having an annual household income of more than $75,000 and 39% having attended college.

“I think wine has kind of grown as restaurants have. The whole dining experience has kind of been taken up a notch,” said Abbie King, manager and sommelier at Tristan on Market Street. “With cuisine, you want a wine to match your menu. People are really taking leaps in ordering different things.”

In tandem with the emerging popularity of wine in America, one downtown Charleston restaurant chose to make its wine storage area a focal point. At Cypress, which opened on East Bay Street in 2001, a 30-foot floor-to-ceiling wall of wine has the capacity to store 4,500 bottles and is accessed by a spiral staircase.

“We wanted wine to be a feature component of the restaurant,” said T.J. Parsell, vice president of Hospitality Management Group, which operates Cypress, Magnolia’s and Blossom Cafe. “It ended up kind of serving a dual purpose. It’s obviously an eye-catching feature of the restaurant, but a practical place to store all the wine.”

Bill Netherland, sommelier for the restaurant group, said the culture of wine has been a rich person’s playground for many years but has recently become more approachable for the everyman.

“The mystique is slowly being etched away,” Netherland said. “Restaurants have pretty much led the way in that, in a somewhat selfish attempt to sell more wine, but we don’t have to sell everyone an expensive cabernet; we can sell a wine that costs $25.

“People are really trying to feature wine as a way of not just raising sales, but trying to create a memory or atmosphere in restaurants. For us, the margin on bottles of wine goes down as they become more expensive. You can’t mark up a $60 bottle as much as you can mark up a $15 bottle.”

At Carolina’s, the most expensive bottle of wine currently offered is a 1996 Joseph Drouhin de Marquis de la Laquiche for $395. While there are wines fetching much more in the cellars of Charleston restaurants, there’s something that makes this white Burgundy something of a celebrity.

“That’s actually the wine that Donald Trump had at his most recent wedding,” said Kevin McGillicuddy, a wine specialist at Carolina’s.

Phenomenal wine sale growth

Juanita Duggan, president and chief executive of Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America Inc., a forum for marketing U.S. wines and liquors, said one statistic summarizes the phenomenal growth of the wine industry in America: Americans last year bought 81 million cases of imported wine, 20 million cases more than all the wine sold in America in 1960.

“It wasn’t always this way,” Duggan told participants at the WSWA’s 63rd annual convention in April. “Back in 1970, only a few restaurants in America had quality, fine wine lists. A familiar refrain was ‘I’ll order it when someone asks for it.’ They didn’t believe that premium brands and imports would sell. Forty years ago, it was white or red. Today, it’s a kaleidoscope of choice.”

Wine Institute in California credits America’s newly emerged love affair with wine to a number of factors.

U.S. wine consumption began to climb in 1991 after the CBS “60 Minutes” French Paradox broadcast, which launched a number of media reports on the health benefits associated with moderate wine consumption. Most recently, the 2004 movie “Sideways” showcased the California wine country and specifically focused on pinot noir, a difficult grape to cultivate and make into wine.

“It created a pinot noir trend like I’ve never seen,” said Rick Rubel, a sommelier at Charleston Grill who has worked in the wine business for 12 years. “Pinot noir has been such a big trend it’s almost difficult to find them.”

Charleston Grill sells a lot of wine in the $75-to-$80 range, although it offers one of Charleston’s most expensive selections: a 1996 Screaming Eagle Cabernet from Napa, for $3,300.

Different wines for different courses

At Oak Steakhouse on Broad Street, there has been not only a tremendous jump in pinot noir sales, but more people are ordering different wines for specific courses.

“Our clientele are average to above-average in their knowledge of wine, so it stresses the restaurant to provide a good wine list,” general manager Michael Beford said. “We change ours every two weeks, sometimes every week.”

At Woodlands Resort in Summerville, whose dining room has earned both the Mobil Five-Star and AAA Triple Diamond awards, the pinot noir section has been expanded on the wine list, and guests are ordering more of various wines.

The resort’s food and beverage director, Huguef LeBerre, said guests at nearly every table in the restaurant order wine either by the glass or by the bottle, often asking for vintages recommended by Wine Spectator.

The dining room’s wine sales are a sharp contrast with those of 10 years ago, Stephane Pelcier, sommelier at Woodlands, said.

“Ten years ago, we were selling iced tea more than anything else,” Pelcier said. “Even at Woodlands.”

Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. You can contact her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.

SUBSCRIBE | REPRINTS | CONTACT US

Phone: 843-849-3100    Fax: 843-849-3122