Agony Aunt

Agony Aunt

Published: (10-09-2008)

Author: Doug Wregg

Doug Wregg, sales director of Les Caves de Pyrene, offers tips on how to build a good relationship with your suppliers.

Do you have a question for one of our sommelier agony aunts? If so, get in touch at .

Q - I know that part of building a good wine list is building a good relationship with suppliers. I’ve spoken to a lot of my colleagues about how they manage this aspect of their jobs, but it would be interesting to get a supplier’s take on the whole thing. What factors influence the relationship from your perspective – both in the positive and the negative sense.

A - As a wine merchant I hope that my customers will actively engage with us and fully use our resources and experience. We service 700 restaurants and other businesses; we know, better than most, what works and what doesn’t, and it is in our interest to offer the best advice so that the restaurateur can run an effective list.

In helping to build a wine list the merchant can shape the wine culture in a restaurant. Wine merchants don’t mind high-maintenance accounts if that maintenance has a purpose. Better a flexible, constantly changing wine list than something set in stone for six months or a year. The imaginative buyer will challenge the wine merchant to come up with interesting proposals; the uninterested or complacent one will take the line of least resistance.

Finally, we like to be able to talk to our customers and find out how we can be of assistance. Some sommeliers (especially those who are passionate about their profession) are highly responsive. Others are remote to the point of being uncontactable, except when they want something from you. If the sommelier wants the best service from a particular wine company, they have to contribute something to the relationship themselves.

In summary:

Our favourite clients:

Want a constructive partnership with us.

Ask what’s possible and don’t demand the impossible.

Understand the difference between value for money and cost.

Put together creative, interesting lists and know how to showcase unusual wines (for example, rotation of stock by the glass).

Are genuinely interested in training their staff.

Give us feedback on the wines.

Our worst clients:

Are driven by margins: some restaurants are obsessed with price and endless freebies. (Restaurants with this philosophy never have great lists.)

Play one merchant off against another.

Want to return stock from vintages that are no longer current.

Demand credits for corked wines (which are often not corked but out of condition because they have been badly stored or sit on the shelf too long).

Take so long to decide to list a wine after a tasting that it has moved on to the next vintage.