Looking Back, Forging Ahead Q&A: Vanessa Stoltz, Restaurant Pine

By Harpers Editorial team

Published: 24 December, 2024

Next up in our end of year trade talking heads is Vanessa Stoltz, head sommelier at Restaurant Pine, as she reflects on remaining competitive in a challenging environment.

What have you put in place to maximise Christmas trading and what are the early indications so far?

Due to its size and menu style, the restaurant doesn’t change internally over the festive period. However, we can capitalise on this particular period externally via gift vouchers with more substantial promotions for nice stocking feelers.

We also just opened a shop selling ‘Pine’ kitchen products, people’s favourite wines from our list, pre-batch cocktails and homemade soft drinks. We also offer a custom gin collab with Hepple Gin, using our Lemon Verbena from the garden.

What, for you, were the specific highs of 2024?

My high point of this year was participating in my very first Sommelier Wine Awards judging panel and my first time participating in the Best UK Sommelier competition, which was a very humbling experience.

Also, volunteering and supporting the ‘Bite Back’ charity event that Sian Byerley founded this year meant the world to Pine and me. (Pine was also voted first place in Square Meals’s top 100 restaurants in the UK.)

To finish, our collab with Pine and Hilton Labriz, which flew us to the Seychelles to offer a sustainable menu and what is forageable/eatable around the island. That was wild.

And the lows?

The traditional scariness of being an independent restaurant, hoping to stay busy and offering the best and most to our dear guests wanting to get the Pine experience.

How have the specific challenges of this year contributed to wider drinks trends?

We try our best to tick the boxes. With the team, we stay put and listen to what our guests want the most. We also love to follow our perspective: to be as local as possible. So, on our list, you’ll find an extensive list of British wines, from sparkling to sweet, affordable to expensive. I wish that everyone coming to Pine, teetotallers, fizz lovers and only red drinkers, etc find their happiness at the budget they are comfortable with, without being overwhelmed.

With the duty easement likely to end in February, how are you looking to mitigate the impact of rising duty on business?

The benefit of focusing on a smaller wine list and British wines is that I am currently in a safer spot. However, as the government says: ‘The duty system reflects modern drinking practices’. Therefore, I will focus even more on my ‘Teetotalist’ non-alcoholic drinks selection, which has already grown this year. Also, crunching on consumables in small amounts will significantly impact the year ahead.

As a business, what positives are you looking forward to in 2025?

We hope to collaborate with like-minded people, as we did in 2024.

Quick fire questions:

Ultimate turkey pairing wine?

Slight oxidised white wine such as Domaine Houillon-Overnoy’s Savagnin from Jura, or Surrey’s Litmus ‘White Pinot’ Pinot Noir

Ultimate wine turkey?

Anything that you find in supermarkets for a fiver

Most overrated spirit?

Aperol

Most underrated spirit?

Calvados

Chardonnay or Riesling?

Riesling

Port or sherry?

Sherry

If you were a type of drink, what would you be and why?

Pink Champagne sparkler. It’s fresh, fancy and glamorous, and if you hear the pop sound, something gets celebrated. This is precisely how I feel! Especially bringing joy into other people’s lives.

Printer friendly version