your hypothetical wine bar: pick 5 Burgs to serve by the glass

Maybe that bran would do you some good Gary.

It’s a completely hypothetical game. Even the word “hypothetical” is in the title, which should warn you anally serious no sense of humor having people to stay away so your panties don’t get into a twist. rolleyes

I plan on letting my imaginary customers drink my hypothetical Burgundy in make-believe Zaltos while sitting on fictional stools at mythological hightops and paying with pretend cash.

Did you survive that last sentence, Mr. Literal? I hope your brain didn’t explode. [pwn.gif]

This is a rather common thing to work with for us so here are the Burgundy wines we’ve served by the glass on a more or less regular basis:

Currently:
Chablis '14, Pattes Loup
Bourgogne Blanc '13, PY Colin-Morey

No reds at the moment unless you count Beaujolais. I don’t consider Beaujolais as part of Burgundy for this sort of discussion or when we think of our wine list. Neither do I consider Chablis to be part of the Burgundy selection in that if someone asks for a white Burgundy I’d never assume they would want a Chablis. Chablis is among the most sold categories of white wines in Norway so if people want Chablis, they ask for Chablis. However, since a few others have mentioned Chablis in their Burgundy list I’ll do the same.

These wines I’ve had by the glass recently:
Bourgone Blanc '10, '11, '12, Antoine Jobard
Bourgogne Blanc Chatagnaires '12, Hubert Lamy
Bourgogne Blanc '10, '11, '12, Domaine Roulot (the price for the BB haven’t gone crazy here, but the wine is allocated)
St Aubin La Princee '09, '10, '11, Hubert Lamy (one bottle left right now)
Chablis 1er Cru Fourchaume '12, Pinson
Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesirs '07, Long-Depaquit
Chablis '09, '10, '11, Solange Tribut
Chablis '12, '13, Pattes Loup (I generally use this as much as I can)

Bourgogne Rouge '12, Charles Audoin
Bourgogne Rouge '10, '11, '12, Trapet Pere et Fils
Bourgogne Rouge '13, Grivot (expencive, but available and famous so it sells)
Mercurey 1er Cru Clos Tonnere '09, '10, '12, Michel Juillot (a regular feature)
Bourgogne Rouge '13, Hubert-Verdereau

Wines I plan to put on the BTG list soon:
Nuits-St-Georges '13, Henri Gouges (depends on my allocation)
Volnay '12 (or 13, depends on whether they have run out of 12. I don’t mind either way. Both excellent vintages), Hubert-Verdereau (one of the best value producers from Burgundy that is actually available in decent quantities)
Chambolle-Musigny VV '12, Hudelot-Baillet

What you’d put on the BTG list depends on several factors. How much do you typically sell? If you sell a few bottles by the glass each week there’s a lot you can put on. I generally buy 24-48 of a wine and then sell it out before I swap it for something else. How long it lasts varies, but the Mercurey we ran with for two years continually through the vintages 09, 10 and 12. That’s an available (and good value in good years) wine that I can sell hundreds of. It came back after I had finished it as the importer found a few boxes in their storage and sold them for me at a discount. Turned out it was 2010. Had matured into it’s peak (just before Christmas last year). Was great.

Of course, if you sell little of more expencive wines you might run the risk of them going bad. In that case Coravin could help you keep the list interesting or you could simply not have the more expencive ones available. There’s a wine bar in Norway (Oslo) called Territoriet that serves everything they have by the glass by using Coravin. That model has turned out to be a huge success. P.S. If you are in Oslo simply ask what’s interesting pointing out your interest. They have things off the list as well, they served the entire range from Grivot by the glass for a while as well as arranging and evening of DRC by the glass (all of them). There aren’t many DRC bottles in Norway hence the single evening of DRC :stuck_out_tongue:

In this day and age I think it’s worth it to have a wine list that changes often. It’s a little extra work, but depending on your system it’s not too labour intensive anymore, and it certainly doesn’t cost much whether you use paper or a table to show your wine list.