If your name's not down...

What wines should I put on my wine list? It is an eternal question for anyone who sells the old grape juice in the on-trade, be they pub, bar, restaurant or even nightclub.

To be honest, if I had definitive answers to this question I wouldn't write for a living. I would sell my ideas to restaurants and pubs and make a damn good living out of it!

But the reason it is particularly challenging is there is no 'one size fits all' solution. And nowhere is this more true than in pubs, where there are a vast array of operations. From small community and large community pubs, to good food pubs and huge high street bars - how on earth do you get your head around those?

After speaking to many people involved in both wine and pubs, people who have fantastic wine knowledge and are very savvy when it comes to the on-trade, you begin to see why there are problems. Quite simply, none of them agree on the right way to do things.

For example, Pierpaolo Petrassi, Master of Wine and senior buyer at WaverleyTBS, says: "You can get away with a tight list and have choice; a pub can carry few lines and have a regular turnover. It is a mistake to think 25 wines on the list necessarily means a profit."

However, Julian Drake, on-trade development manager at PLB, believes this is too limited a choice. "If you look at the average pub, from local to gastro, the onus tends to be towards quite tight and limited lists; on average I would say about 20 wines. That is a very limited range really."

If you think about all the possibilities - all the producing countries, all the different grape varieties, the brands, the vineyards, the winemakers - it's no wonder it's so hard.

For the purposes of this feature we will look at more simple solutions - at what pubs should do if they are looking at stocking between 10 and 20 wines.

Here is a checklist of the kind of things you should be looking at when putting your list together:

Range​

Rather than simply deciding how many reds and how many whites you should stock, get a range of tastes and flavours - from easy-drinking to heavy, juicier wines.

Jonathan Pedley, Master of Wine and on-trade wine consultant for companies such as Punch Taverns, believes a small list of wines can still serve you well. "You can offer a great choice with just 10 bins," he says.

He also feels that going for a small range of grape varieties will give your list the right balance. "Pinot grigio, sauvignon and chardonnay are three

contrasting styles of dry white. And if you have a shiraz, a merlot, and a beaujolais, you have one heavy, chunky red, a mid-bodied one and a lighter red. With this range, you can also then cover a lot of the main producing countries."

The range that Jonathan looks at is something that Simon Haywood, wine category manager at Matthew Clark, picks up on.

"Somewhere around 16 wines would give ample opportunity for a range of styles and prices," he says. "Six of these should be reds: two light, simple, delicate in style; two juicy, fruit-led; one spicy, warming red such as a shiraz or zinfandel; and one full-bodied oaked concentrated wine.

"Seven should be whites: two dry, subtle, delicate in style; two herbaceous aromatic examples such as sauvignon blanc from the Loire or New Zealand; two juicy, fruit-led wines (typical examples from the New World); one more oaked example (typically chardonnay); and an off-dry to medium-sweet white."

Pricing and trading up​

One of the crucial things that a wine list has to do is to encourage the customer to trade up. And this all comes down to how you price your wines. Simon Haywood believes a balanced selection of prices is key. "I would look to ensure there is not a huge difference between the most expensive and entry level wines," he says.

"I would also expect to see more sales of the cheaper wines and therefore look at the cash margin these are delivering. Add a small premium to this and use that cash margin, perhaps £10, to price the most expensive wines on the list.

"This way the pub will sell better quality wines, be rewarded with higher revenues per better bottle sold, the consumer will drink better wines more often and more of the wines on the wine list will be accessible to more consumers. A price range of between £8 for entry level wines and £20 for wines like chablis, with the champagne at around £28 would be ideal."

Pierpaolo argues that much of the problem of getting drinkers to trade up comes down to people frequently choosing a wine on the basis of price alone. His solution to this is to get rid of house wines.

"I would dissuade people from designating a house wine," he says. "Two dynamics tend to prevail with house wine. It's seen as a low risk option, or customers will buy the wine just one down on the list. Jumbling up the list, and not ordering it according to price, means the cheapest is not the first thing they jump to, and the average spend will go up."

"Take a cash margin approach with pricing," he adds. "The punter sees outstanding value if they are charged £5 or £10 over cost price for a bottle of champagne, rather than if they are charged £3.10 for a bottle of house white."

Go global​

It is also crucial to ensure you don't simply focus on French wine - the consumer has moved on thanks to the efforts of supermarkets and off-licences. They're fully aware of the great big world of wine that exists. So be, as Pierpaolo puts it, "geographically democratic and reflect both hemispheres". That doesn't just mean California and Australia either. Scan a bit further down a wholesaler's list and you will find Chile, New Zealand and Argentina too.

Rosé and champagne​

These are the two shooting stars of the wine world. Rosé is growing at 20 times the rate of the rest of the on-trade wine market while sales of champagne increased by 37 per cent in the year up to March 2006 according to AC Nielsen.

While stocking a good rosé is important, Jonathan also sees an opportunity for you to stock something a bit different that is in the rosé style. "Why not stock a white zinfandel? It's a rosé and also has a bit of sweetness, so it appeals to both markets," he says.

When it comes to champagne, Pierpaolo believes that range is hugely important. "You should take a dual-pronged approach with champagne. Stock a cava from Spain for someone coming in to celebrate the end of the week. Stock a proper French champagne for someone coming in to celebrate their first child or a pay rise."

While long drinks and spirits sales are in decline in pubs, wine is seeing growth of just under five per cent a year. So, you might say, maybe there is no secret to it - if you stock wine, it will sell regardless. This is not seeing the bigger picture. You have got to assess where your pub sits in the game and adjust your wine offer accordingly. Think about how serious your food offer is. How often do aspirational customers with money to spend on good wines come into your venue? There are a multitude of things to think about and no one solution will work - every outlet is different and every customer is different. It will take some serious thought and work to come up with the right wine list for your pub. But it will be worth it in the end.

Punch Taverns Wine Options​

Punch Taverns has tried to come up with a solution to the wine menu problem for its tenants with its Wine Options service.

As part of its 'Connect to the World of Wine' initiative, launched last year, it gave its tenants the chance to match their pubs to one of several ready-made wine lists, according to their customer base and trading style.

There are 220 wines to choose to put on three types of menu - starter, intermediate and advanced.

So, for example, if a licensee is a beginner in the wine market then they will follow the starter programme.

Wade Upton, marketing manager for Punch Taverns, says the company would gi