If you were opening a luxury restaurant what 4 or 5 wines would be put on the menu?!

If you were opening a luxury restaurant what 4 or 5 wines would be put on the menu?

18 hours ago
Also, what cocktails?

First, see what type of food you are will be serving. If it is Italian, concentrate on Italian wines. If French, French wines.

Next, look at the location and clientele. You should devote at least 1/3 - 1/2 of your menu to American wines. The reason is that many people have more experience with American wines and will tend to order wines that they have heard of. Unless you have a very ethnic restaurant - ie very traditional French cuisine, in which case you should devote much more on French wines to distinguish your restaurant.

As for the price, at least 1/2 of your wine should be less than $20-$40 retail cost, or roughly $40-75 restaurant price. The reason is that majority people will not want to the pricey wines at your luxury restaurant. They will pay the price for the food and save on the wines. A lot of pharmaceutical company restrict spending to $100-125 per person, so if the food is pricey, they will go cheaper on the wine.

As for the more pricey wines, you will need to have a variety of selection. You should go for more in the range of retail $40-80 per bottle wine, which will sell to the wine lovers. The nice expensive stuff should be limited but at least available, since you will make the most money ot of those. These very pricey wines will also give you the prestige as compared to your competitors.

You should have a selection of at least 200-300 wines for choices, probably totally at least 1000 bottles for your restaurant if you want a decent size establishment. A wine room that can serve both as wine storage area as well as a special dining area would be nice. I have had dinners at many wine rooms and enjoyed the experience of looking and sometimes ordering these nice wines.

Devote about 25-30 percent of menu to white wines. Rest to red wines. Also devote a good selection of wine by glasses. Wine by glasses are much more popular nowaday, since people are willing to try. Honestly, I would highly consider placing at least 15-20 selection of white wines and 20-25 selection of red wines if I owned the restaurant. Keep in mind that you can charge about 1/3-1/4 of the price of a bottle per glass - good money maker if you can push the volume.

As for selection, I would consider the followings:

White:
Chard: KJ, Gallo, Cuvaison, Kenwood, Sutter Home, Jacob's Creek, Yellow Tail, Kunde, Chalone, Santa Margarita, Lindeman, Rabbit Ridge, Artesa, Beringer, Mondavi, Clos Du Bois, Concha y Torro, Crichton Hill, Coppola, Penfold, Wente. Expensive (Grigch Hill, Jordan, Cakebread, Far Niente, Newton, )

Other white choices: White Zinfandel (very important to have good selection, since many beginners start with White Zinf), Sauvignon Blanc (Conundrum), Pinot Gris (Chilean), Riesling (Californian and German); maybe one or two selection of Vigonair

Pinot Noir: Morgan, Siduri, Mondavi, Coppola, Beringer, Wilemmette, Foley, and concentrate on cheaper Central Coast (ie Sideway) and Oregan. Expensive: Reynold, Etude, Hartford Court, Shea, Penner Ashes

Merlot: Californian primarily, with Mondavi, Shafer, Beringer, Coppola, Flora Spring, Kenwood, Gallo, KJ, Sterling. Expensive: Duckhorn, Twomey, Pride, Paloma, Pahlmeyer. A bottle of Amushe Buche would be nice. Also remember many of the French Bordeaux are Merlot - may list them here or list them as a separate Bordeaux catagory.

Cabernet/Meritage: This is where you have the high price expensive stuff, such as Hillside select, Caymus Special Selection, Dunn, Opus, Mondavi Reserve, Montelena, etc. Be sure to include a few cult wines - Screaming Eagle will give you a great prestige, and you will be hoping someone will shell $3000-4000 per bottle (will give you a profit of at least $1000-2000 easily); Harlan, Robert Foley, Revana, Barbour, Grace are all nice to have. Cheaper stuff are similar brand as Merlot and Pinot Noir and Chard.

Other red to consider - good selection of Red Zinfandel (Turley is great to have, highly sought), a couple of Cab Franc, some Syrah and Petit Syrah.

Also, if you have specialty wines, make the following catagories: French Bordeaux (first growthh would be great), French Burgandy (also good selection of First Cru), Italian, Spanish/Portugal, and Australian.

As for dessert wine, make a good list of wine by glasses - Ice wine is always loved (primarily Canadian and German/Austrian), Port is good (Portugal or California), other white dessert wines (Dulce, Lion's Peak, Freemark Abbey, V. Sattui, etc), and also include some Grappas and Madeira.

Champagne list should also include several by glasses as well as selection of French and some Californian. French should include cheaper stuff as well as high expensive stuff such as Cristal and Dom and Grande Dame and Mumm. Californian stuff should concentrate on cheaper wines like Chandon and cheaper Mumm as well as some more prestigious California bubblies such as Schramberg and J.

Also have a selection of large bottle formats available. They are great party wines and great for profit.

The other thing I found very useful is that wine special are well loved and will help you sell wine. Since you will be making at least double of your cost, having a significant discount will move wine and deplete your inventory, which will be useful. One of my favorite restaurants have 1/2 price Tuesday - all bottles are half price. They are still making some profit, but more importantly, they are not sitting on the really expensive stuff for a long time, since all the sudden, people can afford the better stuff. Buy one and get second at half price is also great, as well as some clearance/sale section on the menu to sell the less than desirable vintages or last few bottles.