High-end retailers are raising their glasses to the success of in-store wine tasting events.
The chance to sample popular varietals paired with complementary fare, such as crackers, dips, spreads, olives and chocolates, is not only driving incremental traffic, but presenting retailers with lucrative cross-merchandising opportunities.
Spokane, Wash.-based Yoke's Fresh Market typically hosts such events twice a month in its four locations that are licensed to do so, noted Russ Martin, corporate category manager for the 13-store chain. “We're able to showcase our vast selections — not only of wine, but of our premium offerings throughout the store,” he said. “In stores with wine departments, we typically carry 1,500 or more wines, which range in price from $8 to the over-$100 range.”
Some supermarkets offer tastings of ordinary table wines on their sales floor, while retailers like Yoke's take advantage of more formal store space. The retailer's events take place in a presentation facility located on the second floor of its stores.
Attendees — who must sign up for Yoke's wine sampling gatherings in advance — are often more knowledgeable wine shoppers than those who participate in store-floor gatherings, industry sources note. The more formal events allow for exposure to new vintages and let tasters compare wines to determine what appeals to their individual palates.
Yoke's charges customers a $10 admission fee, and tasters get to keep the glass they use during the sampling. (State liquor laws often require that supermarkets charge a nominal fee any time wine is tasted.) Occasionally the proceeds from a Yoke's event will benefit a local charity.
In addition to featuring wine, Yoke's displays a wide array of cheeses, deli meats and breads at its sampling events. Samples of olives, crackers and spreads that complement the varietals being tasted are also provided.
Beringer, Robert Mondavi, Terra Blanc, Canoe Ridge and Yellow Tail are among the brands that have been featured. During the tastings, consumers are urged to pair white varietals from these vineyards with fish, chicken and creamy pastas, and red wines with red sauces, meats and turkey.
“We typically get a nice bump in sales from the events,” Martin said. He declined to elaborate.
AJ's Fine Foods, a division of Chandler, Ariz.-based Bashas', is also toasting the success of its wine tasting events. It has been hosting the in-store samplings since 2003, when AJ's first introduced a store-within-a-store department called the Wine Emporium.
Each Wine Emporium stocks between 2,500 and 3,000 bottles of wine, priced from less than $10 per bottle up to $70 or more for premium or special-occasion wines.
Wine Emporiums, which are typically located adjacent to the cheese and dairy departments, are equipped with glass washers, sinks, refrigerators, a cuvée wine pouring system and a glass storage area to accommodate wine tastings. The events take place two or three times a week, on Friday and Saturday afternoons, in seven of the chain's 11 locations, according to Alice Itsell, chief wine buyer for AJ's Fine Foods.
“Our customers like the ability to taste the wines before they purchase them,” she said. “At AJ's, we sample wines that are very unique in style or varietal, which gives our customers the ability to learn and understand the wine before they purchase it.”
At events held earlier this month, Hungarian wines, including Bock JÓzsef kékfrankos and Malatinszky Kuria chardonnay, were tasted. French wines, such as Domaine de Sainte-Marie rosé de Provence and Red Blend, were sampled at another June event.
Department managers at AJ's locations work with local sales representatives to decide which foods will be cross-merchandised during wine tasting events. Whenever possible, crackers, sauces and dips that are being offered at a reduced price will be featured.
SAMPLE SALES
A peak in sales of these foods is always evident subsequent to the samplings, Itsell said. Wine sales spike by as much as three cases during a typical two-hour tasting.
“Anytime someone gets the ability to taste something, there is usually a sale right on the spot,” she said. “The tastings also help us understand our customers' taste profiles and what they are interested in.”
Whole Foods Market, based in Austin, Texas, is also dabbling in wine tastings. Earlier this year, it opened a new store in Fairfax, Va., that features a wine tasting room and five sit-down eateries that serve beer and wine. Its offering is unique, in that visitors interested in tasting any of the 80 wines on tap may serve themselves after purchasing a prepaid debit card, a store associate told SN.
Customers who choose to sample a wine can purchase it in quantities of 1, 3 or 5 ounces. Once selected, the wine is mechanically dispensed and collected in a wine glass held under the nozzle by the consumer. Tasting prices range from $1 to $30 an ounce and are based on the cost of the bottle of wine.
Fairfield, Ohio-based Jungle Jim's International Market is no stranger to wine tastings. The 320,000-square-foot supermarket, which services an average of 3,000 customers a day, has been hosting these events weekly for the past 20 years, according to Dave Schmerr, wine and beer director for the retailer.
“Wine tastings are fantastic,” he said. “You can tell a person a thousand things about a wine, but until they taste it, they can't really know the wine. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Well, a taste of wine is also worth a thousand words. Right away they decide if they like it or not — and if they do, they buy it.”
Among the popular wines tasted at Jungle Jim's are well-established brands like Kendall-Jackson, Black Opal, Glen Ellen, Arbor Mist and Concha y Toro.
The retailer hosts, on its sales floor, tastings of wines and beers that are priced for everyday consumption. More elaborate private tastings are staged in the second-floor Oscar Event Center.
ADVANCE SIGN-UP
The more formal tastings require advanced sign-up and charge an admission fee of between $25 and $30. The store-floor tastings at Jungle Jim's are open to all customers who are 21 or older. Due to state regulations, each taste of wine offered on the store floor requires a charge ranging from 10 cents to $2.
“In Ohio, you can't give away alcohol,” noted Schmerr.
The Oscar tastings generally feature 10 different wines, which are grouped by wine type, country of origin or vintage. Samples of cheese, fresh-baked scratch bread from the on-site bakery, deli meats, olives and crackers are also made available during these events.
Foods sampled during the store-floor wine tastings are cross-merchandised along with the wine on special displays, according to Schmerr.
Incremental wine sales from an Oscar wine tasting event can easily come to between $5,000 and $10,000, said Schmerr. Incremental sales for wines tasted on the floor average between $1,000 and $2,000, plus another $1,000 in sales of foods cross-merchandised with the wines.
Like pharmacies, wine departments are now becoming a staple for many supermarkets, particularly in stores targeting mid- to upper-income shoppers.
“Where the demographics lend themselves to an expanded wine department, we will continue to offer wine tastings,” said Martin. “They're a very useful marketing tool.”
Itsell noted that all new AJ's locations, including two more that are scheduled to open later this year, will have Wine Emporiums.
“The biggest benefit of our wine tastings is receiving immediate customer reaction,” she said. “It helps the sales staff understand what styles our customers like.”
Schmerr said that in addition to creating a marketing advantage and a traffic-builder for Jungle Jim's, the tastings also help him, as a buyer, determine which wines to stock.
“If they buy a certain winery way above others, then I know that winery is a hit,” he said.
