Breathing Life - Into Your Wine-by-the-Glass Program

Faithful readers of The New Yorker magazine may remember John Brian's classic cartoon, which pictures a crowd of people being held back by a waiter who has just poured a sample of wine to a restaurant patron. The caption reads, "OK, everybody. Stand back and let it breathe!"

As a living thing, wine does breathe once opened and much attention is paid to the best way to do it, i.e., in the bottle versus in the glass, decanted or not decanted. We know that the process of "opening up" actually means that oxidation has begun breaking down the wine's components. In my experience, the length of this process may vary with each wine. A good Barolo can take a day to open up, in contrast to many other wines that decline several hours after opening and being poured a few times. As a wholesaler, I begin calling on retail and restaurant accounts at 9 a.m. with several wines in my insulated bag. As the day progresses, it becomes apparent that the wines are opening up, and then by the end of the day, some can be as tired as I am.

So, what happens when the wines are "out of breath," so to speak? I have the option of not continuing to take them out of my bag if the bottle doesn't provide a true representation of the wine. But, what happens in a restaurant situation when no method of preserving wine is used? Guests get a less-than-fresh glass, which may hinder their enjoyment, and perhaps mislead them to think that XYZ Winery makes a marginal wine.

Wine writer Lettie Teague proposed in a recent article (Food & Wine magazine, March 2005) that wine by the glass could be one of the worst deals in a restaurant. Her criticism is based, among other things, on the fact that the wine has been opened for several days. She points to our insistence on fresh ingredients, from "day boat scallops to line caught trout, so why is day-old Chardonnay acceptable?" Furthermore, she asks, "why shouldn't I get it at a discount like my bakery gives me on day old bread?"

Many restaurateurs believe they have little or no spoilage because they sell so much wine; however, we must ask if this is a fair assumption. As Teague laments, opened wines inescapably degrade. Will the quality of your wines consistently meet the increasingly sensitive palates of your customers? Many say they check their wines daily, but with wine programs featuring 25, 50 and 100 wines, you may ask if this really happens, or has the customer become the steward of the restaurant's quality-control program?

Let's explore the various ways in which to keep wine a salable product, and help identify criteria for choosing the method that best suits your operation.