r/Sommelier

Hello, I'm the chef/somm at a medium-sized French brasserie, and I've recently been tasked with upgrading our winelist to a book. I am hoping to get some advice/feedback from those of you who have done this before. My initial reaction to this idea was that we don't do enough business to justify a book. We are at 110k in BTB sales for this year so far, and last year we did 140k for the whole year. I've brought this up with emphasis on how not all wine is truely ageworthy. But it has kind of fallen on deaf ears. So here we are planning a book. We are a French restaurant so I want to be strongly french focused. Our current sales lean strongly french with the breakdown by category for this year, by revenue percentage, being

Bordeaux 25.1

Red Burgundy 14.7

White Burgundy 12.3

Sauvignon Blanc 10.8

Interesting Reds 10.1

Domestic Cab 7

Champagne 6.6

Rose 5.4

Half Bottles 1.7

Interesting Whites 1.4

Domestic Chardonnay 1.1

Domestic Pinot 0.4

To me, this split also indicates that we should build our strengths more and not expand to the amount a book would require. But I would love some feedback about that. My rough design for book categories is here

Wine Book Sections

WHITE

1.    Champagne
   

2.    Other Sparkling
   

3.    White Burgundy
   

4.    Loire
   

5.    New World Chardonnay
   

6.    International Sauvignon Blanc
   

7.    Interesting Whites
   

8.    Rosé
   

RED

9.    Red Burgundy (subdivided Nuits, Beaune, other)
   

10. Bordeaux (Divided by Region)

11. Rhone/Southern France

12. New World Pinot

13. New World Cab

14. Spain

15. Italy

16. Interesting Reds

17. Small and Large format

Does anything stand out as lacking in this plan for a book? Do you agree or disagree that we dont do enough sales to justify a book? The last thing I want is lots of extra wines, especially cheaper non ageworth wines, sitting around. Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you!

i’m 22, and preface i will 100% call my mom to drive me if i do not feel okay to, i dont have a problem and prefer to actually so that is not my issue here. i’m taking my first WSET class next week and my mom will NOT let me drive to and from. i understand i’ll be sampling wine but its not a casual wine tasting, its the first step I’m solidly taking towards my career in the wine industry (which as a woman is already a bit daunting) but i’m not going there to get tanked or to DRINK wine. it’s so beyond frustrating because how the hell do you expect me to get a job in this industry tasting wine if you think doing that will leave me incapacitated to the point of not being able to drive, because it would mean i’d have to option BUT to rely on her for rides from here on out and that is NOT AN EXPECTATION OR STANDARD i want to set at all. We have issues breaking away in concerns to my independence but its odd to come from her and it feels like simply scared because of a lack of knowledge. how can i let her know that it’s going to be okay that i have a wine class and can drive myself home and that if i’m not, she has to trust me and my decision to call her if i’m unable to?