Stumbled upon this blog. I have no connection, and this is not an endorsement or condemnation of the blog our its writer. Just found the info interesting. From Restaurant Wine magazine.
Interesting. When I was doing the ordering for our chain steakhouse back 10 years ago Beringer White Zin was the easy king. Looks like things have swung back to KJ with an ‘Italian’ sneaking in. Expected to see the Santa Margherita Grigio though.
I’m not ITB, but it seems to may that volume dictates the list. As buyer for “x chain” or “y big box restaurant”, I do not want to deal with the wine list. I want to know that the same relatively consistent wines are always on the list. Which means the huge volume wines like Beringer. It’s easy. I do not want to wake up to an email in my inbox that such and such a wine is out of stock.
It’s the same reason that if you drive every 50 miles or so, this country basically repeats itself. Best Buy. Home Depot. Lowes. Bed Bath & Beyond. Walmart. Target. Chiles. Outback. You know what I mean. The top selling wines are simply a reflection of this “trend.” The name of the game is familiarity.
Small, non chain, not publicly held restaurants probably STILL outnumber the corporate places that would actually cough up such numbers. No one knows what is being sold there to any degree of certainty. A place doing ten cases a week of Santa M by the glass could ALSO be buying much more interesting stuff from small, independent broker distributors who ALSO are not coughing up these numbers. A place like Fathers’ Office or Lou’s Wine Bar here sells probably FIVE times more wine per customer count than a Bennigan’s or Olive Garder and ALL of it is wonderful, hand chosen stuff. And there are places like that in even some of the most remote corners of our fair country (particularly in college towns).
Yes, these are big trends but NOT truly accurate statistics.
Santa Margherita has become victim of its own success. It’s priced itself (at retail) to a point where it’s become cost-prohibitive in restaurants to the average consumer. I see it at around $50-60 in restaurant wine lists in the NY area.
Yes, those numbers come from Southern, Glazer, Chambers ect. BUT, in many states there are scores of small (even one person) importers / brokers / distributors who also sell a LOT of wine when combined and probably don’t report ANYTHING to Market Watch. Ditto the independent restaurants.
This is like Warner Music giving you a report of what they sell that also got played on top 40 radio…
This might be true but one corporate restaurant will carry the same wines across its entire chain dictating the menu and wine list. That equals huge placement of these types of wines and thus much more volume total. Not every independent place is carrying the same things so you won’t see those types of wines on a list like this.
I don’t see why you care though. Does anyone care that Bud and Sewers Lite are the top selling beers in America? If you want good beer you know not to go to Bennigan’s or Olive Garden.
Roberto–While it may be true that some restaurant sales aren’t included or reported, in terms of top ten sellers by volume in restaurants, there is no way that the wines “hand chosen” for a place such as Father’s Office make the top ten seller’s list on a national basis. Or even a regional basis.
Let me put it this way: Name me ONE wine on the Father’s Office wine list that you think truly would be in the top ten sellers by volume on a national basis if every small restaurant’s sales were included…
I have a friend who owns a very nice Vietnamese restaurant with a modern, clean decor and wonderful wine-friendly food. She has a wine list made up by a distributor, full of crappy wines. I have tried many times to explain why she should put together a nice wine list and emulate on a smaller scale the success of Slanted Door in SF. But her restaurant is pretty small and she knows nothing about wine-- so she has stuck to the distributor list. Let’s face it, a nice wine list requires active management-- unlike a list full of mass produced wines that can be ordered like beer, vegetables or meats on an “as needed” basis. I would bet that many restauranteurs do not have the time, interest, or expertise to manage a better wine list. I doubt that this will change anytime soon.
And one other thing: you will never crack that the top 10 unless you mass produce it, and it is cheap-- almost by definition.
I would be very interested to know what the top 10 wines are in a more “elite” group of restaurants, say those recommended by Michelin or some other entity.
I’m not saying that, Bruce. I am saying that interesting wines in total probably sell as much as one or two of those names combined. Almost by definition there isn’t ENOUGH of any one individual hand made, hand selected wine to be on that list.
Other classic examples that are NOT in this sample would be Slanted Door and LOS in Vegas and there are thousands of such places.
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