This is a simple example of trying not to fight a trend, but to embrace it.
Summary:
Consumers still want what they can’t afford, so the simplest thing to do is find a different way to sell it to them. This example is about restaurants, but don’t think this a just about restaurants. Consider how any food business can break the predicable approach to how they sell existing products and re-align themselves with changes in buying behaviour.

Most restaurants have a very poor range of wine by the glass – WHY! Leaving the decent stuff to be only available by the bottle does not make me want to buy. Introduce me with sampling glass across a range of wine that is recommended to course (and explain why). This approach of ‘introducing’, or mini samples works right across the food industry – try it works!
comment: Rob Ward
read on…

Sample glasses grow business:

Just because you might have to spend less on wine in uncertain economic times doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice quality. Today’s consumers can choose from a huge selection of excellent wines at affordable prices — whether in top restaurants and wine shops or at the supermarket.

It isn’t like in past times of financial crisis; nowadays there’s a lot more out there than just expensive Bordeaux and Burgundy. Vineyard management and wine-making techniques that have long been used by top estates — like an emphasis on cellar hygiene and the use of temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks to retain grapes’ fresh fruit flavors during fermentation — are now more common as competition grows for consumer palates.

To be sure, global economic problems are hurting sales of trophy wines like Château Lafite Rothschild and driving price-sensitive wine consumers to seek out quality and value at lower prices. At high-end restaurants, auction houses and fine-wine shops, experts say, customers are getting choosier about wine — buying less expensive Champagne at dinner, for example, or foregoing it altogether — and trying out new wines that cost less than the old standbys.

Restaurants are selling more wine by the glass, and everybody is selling less Champagne; some restaurants are restocking cellars at a slower rate to avoid tying up capital; and consumers are being urged to try wines from lesser-known regions, such as Minervois-La Livinière in southern France, that can offer excellent value for money.
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The editors of Wine Enthusiast Magazine lets the Wall Street Journal sit in on a tasting to see how they rate and review wines.

A quarterly survey released at the end of October from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association in the U.K., one of Europe’s biggest wine markets by consumption and the top market for Champagne outside of France, found that 72% of British wine consumers say price promotions are the top factor driving their wine purchasing decisions.

We asked six wine experts — five in London and one in Vienna — about how consumption patterns have changed in recent months amid the difficult economic environment. We also asked them how they’re adapting to the challenging financial situation and got them to recommend some relatively low-cost wines that don’t sacrifice quality.

The gurus we consulted agree on one thing: You don’t have to break the bank to drink good wine.
Simon Staples

Fine wine director, Berry Bros. & Rudd