Business of Curling: Good Wines in Nice Glasses!

Curl BC and the CCA held a Business of Curling Symposium in Vernon, BC the weekend of October 15-17 and some interesting ideas emerged that bear sharing. We had a neat conversation about glassware in Canadian curling facilities and how many buildings continue to resist purchasing proper glasses to serve wine. Consumption of wine continues to increase and it makes no sense to resist the trend and continue to use either plastic wine glasses (image to the right) or glasses not suited for wine when it is proven that proper presentation and quality wines will often trump the price!!!  And many (if not all!) in the room agreed we needed to start a revolution to convince managers and other decision-makers to upgrade their stock!!! The glasses shown here on the left would be a very good choice. Here are some tips on wine glassware: – Good wine glasses are visually appealling. – The flavour is enhanced. – There are many price points. – The basic wine glass has a wider base with a more narrowed, tapered top; however, the size of the glass varies dramatically for different types of wine.
Red wines – Red wines should be served in glasses with larger, more open bowls to allow it to aerate and distribute the aroma. White wines – Narrower, smaller glasses with a more elongated bowl so that the wine stays chilled longer. Miscellaneous – All-purpose glasses are designed to be acceptable in most serving situations, regardless of whether you’re serving red or white wines. – A popular trend in glassware today is the stemless variety of all-purpose wine glasses.
Serving – Fill the wine glass only about ⅓ – ½ way full. Leaves room so customer can smell the wine and note its flavour.
Now it sounds like we became a bunch of wine snobs at this Symposium but, I really believe the bigger issue is that Canadians are becoming more discriminating and are willing to pay for a quality, visually appealing drink. With overall bar sales declining, it is important that the one sale you might make to a customer should both taste and look great!! Spread the word by asking your club to get nice wine glasses to go with quality wines! What do you sell? Finally, I would like to make a recommendation to everyone on solid choices of red and white house wines that are being sold in our buildings. Many simply buy inexpensive house wines in large bottles to retail to their customers without any thought to cabernet sauvignons, shirazs, chardonnays etc. We want to know what you’re selling but we only want to know if it in fact is selling and the customers are happy. Send the name and winery of your house wines (both red and white) and we’ll post them up. Let the revolution begin!!! e-mail to [email protected] (note: the internet has a wealth of information about wines….google and read away!)