How do you memorize facts about wines in your store?

I’ll look up tech sheets on wines that my store sells as a reminder. What’s the best way you’ve kept up with the inventory and what do you do when it’s one that you can’t remember? Do you pull out the B.S. card? Of course we can all take notes, but a customer is not going to wait for you to find your notes and may just assume you’re spending that time Googling the “answer”.

#1 Be Honest. BS and you run the risk of getting caught and losing the customer. Very expensive mistake.

Most hand-selling comes from knowledge of the taste of the wines and matching that to the customer’s needs. It starts with a conversation. With practice, you can quickly learn how to get the information you need to make a recommendation based on style preference, situation of use and budget.

If a customer has a technical question you don’t know the answer to, it’s alright to admit it and offer to get the answer for them. Unless it’s related to a winemaking decision or blend of varieties, most of the time it’s usually just mild curiosity on their part.

I’d say that it’s important to know how 90% of your store tastes - allowing that there may be some allocated wines you can’t afford to taste but need for your selection. For those, you should research tasting notes on cellartracker to get a sense of how they fit in with the rest of the selection, as well as against benchmark producers your customers might already know.

Not ITB but I’ve got some modest suggestions. Most people aren’t that interested in facts but are interested in stories. Stories are also easier to recall than facts. Perhaps think of the story of the wine rather than a collection of discrete facts. Also, a mnemomic trick is to visualize an image with the parts of the story you want to recall; the image will help you recall the detail; the more ridiculous/memorable the image is the easier it will be to recall the info (e.g., a producer is the first to make zinfandel in the region, picture him in a caaveman outfit with a zin sign overhead). Don’t know if any of this will help but wish you the best of luck.

Yea, I usually try to pair facts with trying to remember the day I tried it and if I can recall generally what happened that day it helps me recall the information other than just a good story if the wine has one.