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A VinePair report describes how restaurant beverage directors are adjusting purchasing, wine selections and pricing amid rising costs and supply disruptions. The strategies include offering alternatives to expensive bottles, buying in larger quantities where storage allows, and balancing margins against guest affordability.
Restaurant beverage directors are changing how they buy, price and recommend drinks as higher costs and supply disruptions make it harder to maintain beverage programs, according to a report by VinePair. The professionals interviewed described offering alternatives to increasingly expensive wines, using bulk purchases when storage permits, and setting prices with guest demand in mind rather than relying on a single markup formula.
Wine director Will Jones of The Hope Farm and Little Bird in Fairhope, Alabama, said rising prices have made some well-known Burgundy bottles harder to sell at prices guests can accept. Rather than treating those wines as the only option, he said he recommends bottles from nearby Burgundy appellations, including Hautes-Côtes de Beaune and Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, as well as Bourgogne Rouge and Bourgogne Blanc.
Felipe de Assis Villela, beverage director at Bluepoint Hospitality Group in Easton, Maryland, said he can offer guests wines from northern Italy, Austria or Germany as alternatives to expensive Burgundy. He described a Grand Cru German wine priced under $200 as one option, compared with a Grand Cru Burgundy that can cost $1,800. The examples illustrate how directors are trying to preserve a sense of discovery without assuming every guest can afford an iconic bottle.
Some operators also seek better purchase prices through volume discounts. Amanda Reed of Seattle’s E3 Co. Restaurant Group said distributors may require orders of five or 10 cases, amounts that can exceed the storage capacity at individual properties. Her group may negotiate a commitment to buy a larger quantity while arranging to receive it in smaller deliveries. The approach can help with cost and availability, but depends on distributor terms, supply and space to store the product.
Keeping Guest Choices Within Reach
The decisions matter because beverage lists connect a restaurant’s finances with the experience guests receive. When wholesale costs rise, operators face a choice: absorb some of the increase, charge more, reduce the selection, or find alternatives that still fit the meal and the guest’s expectations. The directors quoted by VinePair describe trying to protect both business viability and affordability, rather than treating the highest possible markup as the only goal.
Those trade-offs also affect what guests can find on a menu. A substitution from a famous region may give customers a less costly route to a similar style or an unfamiliar bottle with its own story. But alternatives are not identical replacements, and the source report does not establish how often guests accept them or whether the strategies produce better financial results across the industry.
bulk wine purchasing for restaurants
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Costs, Supply and Workload
VinePair describes a mix of pressures on beverage programs: inflation, tariffs and supply-chain problems, along with instability in the wholesale market. The report points to Republic National Distributing Company’s collapse and bankruptcy proceedings as part of the disruption. It also notes labor expenses and the expanding range of products and categories that buyers are expected to evaluate.
The pressures are not limited to what a bottle costs. Beverage professionals must also manage ordering, supplier communications and other administrative responsibilities. Johannus Grevelink, beverage director for José Andrés Group, told VinePair that his inbox can receive 40 to 60 product-related emails a day, including pitches that may not be relevant to the group. That is his account of his workload, not an industry-wide measurement.
Buying in bulk can lower unit costs or help guard against shortages, but it is not available to every venue. Storage capacity, the terms offered by distributors and the ability to move stock among locations all shape whether a large order makes sense. The report says some operators can use multiple outlets within a property or city to make larger purchases more practical.
“I cannot sell Premier Cru Burgundy for the same price we could five years ago.”
— Will Jones, wine director at The Hope Farm and Little Bird
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How Far the Strategies Extend
The report provides examples from individual beverage professionals, but it does not quantify the effect of these choices on restaurant profits, beverage sales or guest satisfaction. It also does not give comparable price data for the wider market or specify how costs have changed across different regions and types of venues.
The supplied material offers limited detail on the report’s reference to hidden operating costs, and it does not establish how long current supply disruptions or price pressures will continue. Distributor availability and pricing can differ by state and supplier, so the approaches described may not be possible for every restaurant. The account also does not say how frequently guests choose the suggested alternatives over the bottles they originally wanted.
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Operators Continue to Adjust Buying
The report describes ongoing adjustments rather than a single industry-wide policy change. Beverage teams are likely to keep evaluating supplier offers, inventory needs and the prices guests are willing to pay as conditions change. For bulk buyers, the practical next step is weighing potential discounts against storage limits, delivery schedules and the risk of holding more stock than a venue can use.
For guests, the changes may appear as different bottles on wine lists, revised prices or recommendations from staff. The source material does not identify a specific upcoming industry milestone or forecast when costs and supply will stabilize; those developments remain dependent on market and distributor conditions.
alternative wines from Burgundy and Northern Italy
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Key Questions
What pressures are affecting restaurant beverage programs?
The VinePair report cites inflation, tariffs, supply-chain issues and distributor-market disruption, as well as labor costs and the time needed to manage product offers and purchasing.
How are beverage directors responding to higher wine prices?
Some are recommending less expensive alternatives from other Burgundy appellations or from countries such as Italy, Austria and Germany, while aiming to offer guests bottles with a compelling style or story.
Can buying in bulk help restaurants?
It can provide access to volume discounts and may help protect against shortages, according to the report. Whether it works depends on distributor terms, available stock, storage space and the restaurant’s ability to receive or distribute the product.
Are restaurants simply raising beverage markups?
Not in every example in the report. De Assis Villela said he considers whether a wine will sell and described a pricing approach that still makes money without focusing only on a percentage markup. The report does not show how common that approach is.
Is there evidence these strategies are improving profits?
The source report shares practitioners’ examples but does not provide industry-wide financial data or measure the effect of the strategies on profits, sales or guest satisfaction.
Source: rss
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