Training Your Servers in Wine Sales and Service

The secret to a successful restaurant is undoubtedly impeccable service. Your servers are the only link between your products and your customers. Whether they’re serving food or wine, your servers must be top-notch. In this article, Les Grappes offers some tips on how to train your servers in wine sales and service. These tips will help you perfect the service at your restaurant!

Train your servers in wine sales

To improve your service and promote your products, encourage your servers to describe your wines thoughtfully. It’s not just about offering wines to customers, but also about convincing them of the value of the wines in your cellar.

It is also the server’s job to make creative suggestions to customers: they can highlight rare or unique items to boost sales. The server can offer advice or provide details about the wines on the menu. To do this, they must identify the customer’s needs and also spark their interest.

It is therefore essential to know the wine and food menus inside out, not only to be able to recommend food and wine pairings to customers, but also to stay up to date on daily specials, changes in inventory, and so on...

You can also offer a selection of wines on a slate, which the server will present to customers. Your servers should be able to present the wines on the menu and highlight their merits to increase the likelihood of a sale.

It is therefore up to the server to promote your establishment’s offerings. They must demonstrate both expertise and good taste when interacting with guests: they must persuade customers and showcase their passion for wine. Indeed, a server must master the ins and outs of the trade, and will perform better if they are truly passionate about it. Thus, the art of winemaking—including the selection of grape varieties, the harvest, the wine’s origin, and its distinctive flavor profiles—must hold no secrets for them.

Essential service techniques

Your restaurant’s servers must be well-versed in presenting wine, which means paying close attention to how the wine is presented and served. Here are the essentials of wine service:

• You must master both the presentation of the bottle and its opening at the table. The bottle must be presented at the table. Close attention should also be paid to the choice of glasses, as these vary depending on the wine being served. For guidance, we recommend referring to this article on wine service in restaurants:
  How to Serve Wine Properly in a Restaurant
• The wine’s serving temperature must be maintained. You should ensure that the bottle remains at the ideal serving temperature, for example by using ice buckets. Quick tip: Check out our article on wine serving temperatures!

Wine service

Once the bottle has been opened, it’s time to serve the wine, a process that is also highly regimented. This is the final step for the server and can be summed up by one golden rule: no empty glasses.

First and foremost, after opening the bottle, the server should offer a taste of the wine to the person who ordered it, then wait for their approval before serving the other guests (it is customary to serve the ladies first). Be sure not to forget to serve the person who tasted the wine again.

To pour a glass, the server should stand to the customer’s right, holding the bottle with both hands and taking care not to cover the label. Next, they should fill the glasses: halfway for red wine, and one-third full for white wine. Once the wine has been poured, to raise the bottle, they should swirl it above the glass. Then they should wipe the neck of the bottle and serve the next customer.

The Golden Rules

Here are a few final tips to help you perfect the service at your establishment. Above all, be sure to always:

• Serve the wine before the dish it accompanies;
• Open all the bottles ordered at the start of service;
• Pour more wine before clearing the table;
• And, of course, keep an eye on the service to make sure the glasses are never empty.

Finally, your servers must be prepared to win back customers who are dissatisfied or disappointed with the quality of the wine. This is a major challenge for you, since your servers are the face of the restaurant, and they are largely responsible for building customer loyalty and resolving these kinds of issues. This is one of the sales skills that servers must master.