Restaurateurs should rethink their house wines during the credit crunch, warns AFW

Published: 21 October, 2008

Restaurateurs should check the quality of their house wines as consumers rein in the budgets during the credit crunch, the Academy of Food and Wine (AFW) is advising.

Restaurateurs should check the quality of their house wines as consumers rein in the budgets during the credit crunch, the Academy of Food and Wine (AFW) is advising.

"If a customer orders a house wine, they are putting their trust into that restaurant to give them something that is decent to drink at a reasonable price. If the house wine isn't up to scratch then that customer could be lost to the business," warned Paul Breach, the Academy's director of strategy & communications.

The AFW is advising restaurateurs to work with their suppliers or make the most of purchasing deals offered through associations to find wines that are interesting and that can be sold at a good price with a decent mark-up.

It is also advising them to offer more wines by the glass or the carafe.

Master sommelier Gerard Basset MW, proprietor of Hotel TerraVina in Hampshire and chair of the Academy's technical committee, believes that the term house wine has been all but destroyed by operators selling poor quality wines.

Basset advises restaurateurs to have some well chosen entry-level wines at reasonable prices. "During the credit crunch people are looking at spending their money well, they don't want to waste it, whether it is a £15 bottle of wine or a £100 bottle of wine, it has to be value for money," he said.

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