How to choose your restaurant's house wine

On the floor, many tables do not order a wine by name but with a question: "what's your house wine?". The house wine is the default choice for guests who do not want to read the list or get it wrong. That is why it deserves as much attention as the most expensive bottle: it is the wine many tables order without consciously choosing it.

What role the house wine plays

It is a quick answer for the guest and an easy way for the team to sell. It works well when it is reliable, suits the food and has a price that makes sense at first glance. It works badly when it is chosen on cost alone and ends up suggesting that wine in your restaurant does not deserve attention.

The symptom: almost all the wine you sell is the house wine

The house wine selling a lot is not a problem in itself. It is one when it happens because the list is intimidating, because nobody offers alternatives or because the next price step looks like a leap. To find out, check in your POS what share of wine sales goes to the house wine, how it is evolving and what the tables that do not choose it order. If there are hardly any sales on the step immediately above, the problem is not the house wine but what surrounds it.

Criteria for choosing it

Look for an approachable, versatile profile that goes with most dishes without overpowering them. Prioritise continuity: a supplier who can supply it consistently and give notice of vintage changes. Check how it holds up once open if you are going to serve it by the glass or by the carafe. And taste it with the team and with the real food, not just at a distributor tasting. Depending on the venue, it is worth having at least a white and a red, and considering a rosé or a sparkling wine if your guests ask for it.

How to price it

The house wine should be the entry point to the list, but not so cheap that the next option looks out of proportion. Calculate its price by the glass using the bottle's real yield and expected waste, and review the relationship between glass, carafe and bottle so that no format is out of balance. Look at the margin in euros per serve, not just as a percentage: it is usually the wine that moves the most units.

Name it and explain it

Saying only "house wine" forces the server to improvise. If the list and the floor team give the producer, the region, the grape and a sentence about its style, always using the information on its label or in the supplier's documentation, guests understand what they are ordering and the team has a starting point for recommending. It also makes changes easier: when you replace it, you will know how to describe the new wine on the same basis.

Use it as a gateway, not a ceiling

The simplest recommendation starts from the house wine: "our house red is light and fruity; if you fancy something with more body, we have this option". A well-chosen, reasonably priced next step lets you raise the average spend without pushing. Offering that second option by the glass reduces the risk for a guest who is hesitating.

Formats and control

Glass, carafe and bottle have different costs and waste. Set up each format as a separate product in the POS and link each one to its serving unit. That way you can see how many glasses really come out of each bottle and spot whether the carafe is being poured fuller than planned.

When to review it

Taste each new vintage before accepting it, review the price when the cost changes and look again at sales of the next step up every few months. If the house wine gains weight while the rest of the list loses it, review the list again.

How Winerim connects it

With POS sales connected, Winerim Core cross-references cost, selling price, formats, sales and stock for each wine, so the house wine is analysed on the same criteria as the rest of the list. The digital wine list lets you organise filters and recommendations within the configured scope so that the next step up is visible.