The Grapevine

What Your Wine Shop Customers Are Reading: Barolo, Champagne, Wine Tasting Dinners

October 23rd, 2014

The interesting articles we’ve uncovered this week that your wine shop customers might be reading – and that might influence what they’re asking you for – include Barolo reviews, a discussion of the best glasses for Champagne, and pricing of fixed price wine dinners. And if your customers aren’t reading these things, you’ve got something interesting to share with them in person on via social media or your email marketing. [level-members]

Negotiating Wine Pairings
First from Eater.com we have a discussion of how and when you can and can’t negotiate the pricing of wine pairings to accompany tasting menus. Frequently, the suggestion is to order wine at the same price as the menu, which doubles your cost. These aren’t always set in stone, though there are some good guideliness to consider when asking for tastings at a lower price. The full article is here.

Barolo Reviews from The New York Times
The Times reviews Barolo this week and the news is good for lovers of this nebbiolo-based wine. (Though the news is less-good for their wallets. No surprise that these wines are pricey. Read the full article here.)

What Glass is Best for Champagne?
Haters of flutes and coupes, rejoice! You’ve got some heavyweight company in your corner, in the form of Federico Lleonart. He is a global wine ambassador for Pernod Ricard and he has recently said that you need nothing more than a white wine glass to serve Champagne to best advantage. Of course, there is the allure of a coupe modeled after supermodel Kate Moss’ breast … Read the full article here. (Sadly/safely, no pictures of the modeling process.)

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