Thus far, we’ve discussed primarily direct-to-consumer wine sales – a couple, a table or someone sitting at the bar, with the server as the main conduit. Group sales are a totally different animal as the buyer’s priorities are more cost-conscious while you have different inventory or logistical requirements. The best way to devise your wine plan for groups – as part of the overall beverage strategy – is to start with weddings because almost all of them have wine.

Unlike a restaurant meal where the beverage selection is a ‘front seat’ driver of the overall experience, for events like a wedding, alcohol and wine often take a backseat. To understand this better, just yourself in the bride and groom’s shoes during the venue selection and planning process. The location, availability, ambiance, venue capacity, hotel room pricing and space rental all take precedence before F&B enters the picture. Then they might go through a site visit and the banqueting food options with samples. Only after all those priorities have been checked off both alcohol and the wine selection enter the picture.

Not only is the budget working against your upselling abilities at this point, but so are the mentalities of the wedding party. The assumption is more than likely to be that the host’s guests don’t have an advanced knowledge of wine; a basic, palpable red and white will suffice. Why spend any more than they have to? Yet, at the same time, the bride and groom don’t want to appear cheap, so the two wines shouldn’t be the most popular ones in the liquor store in order to avoid on-the-spot price comparisons. Rarely either will wedding planners select vintages from your core wine list. Instead, they’ll work off a catering menu, creating a short wine list unique for the event.

These factors taken into account, the selling falls upon the catering staff and the sales team who both seldom receive bespoke training or are as inherently knowledgeable as your servers and sommeliers. Moreover, the desire for a once-in-a-lifetime occasion begs for the creation of a private label wine.

Obviously, there are lots of obstacles in maximizing wine revenues from a wedding, let alone any other event where the beverages aren’t a top consideration. With weddings as a core scenario then branching out to anniversary parties, reunions, meetings, corporate retreats and other common event RFP you are likely to receive, we can now create some guidelines for your event wine strategy.

It begins your merchant and wholesaler relationship. Ask them about wines that cannot be directly compared with what a consumer can find on the shelf. What can you get that’s decent at a bulk discount price? Would they be prepared to conduct training for your sales and banqueting teams, not just your bar and waitstaff?

As for the vintages chosen, stay conservative and mainstream. Even if a terroir-cheap label is offered from, say, Serbia, this should be avoided as it’s too esoteric for some palates. Wines from California, France and Italy should be top of mind, while you can also consider ones from Argentina, Chile or South Africa provided the varietal(s) is an international flight or stereotypical of the region. And the taste profile should be neutral so that it pairs with any dish on the prix fixe food menu.

If the bride and groom want a bubbly for a toast, keep a prosecco available as champagnes purchased in quantity will be unaffordable for most, thus eliminating the possibility of a sale altogether. Sometimes, it will be deemed appropriate to have a higher caliber selection for the head table, for which choosing off the standard restaurant wine list can be an option. In this case, just be sure to serve this premium wine decanted in order to obscure the differentiated product from what others receive to avoid comparison.

Next comes total quantity per BEO and stocking. A rule of thumb is one bottle per person for budget purposes, plus additional wine for the cocktail reception. Serve the same wine in this pre-dinner function as would for dinner to avoid confusion.

While weddings are definitely a unique and lucrative opportunity for a hotel, every other event can attain healthy beverage sales if the sales team is trained and the menu is designed appropriately for the customer’s specific needs. Finally, there will be exceptions to this approach, so qualification and flexibility are also important much all other aspects of the sales process.