For night out on the town, many picture delicious food and excellently-paired drinks enjoyed with even better company. That said, for any restaurant or bar that plans to serve alcoholic beverages of any kind, wine is often the smartest choice. Offering wine by the glass and by the bottle drives more revenue for your business, while also not needing to be prepared in a cocktail: it can be served by the glass or by the bottle immediately as long as you’ve chilled it ahead of time.

However, there is actually a correct way to serve wine, and it comes with specific steps—and each and every one contributes to giving your customers an optimal drinking and dining experience. And more than just how your service staff pours the wine into a glass, it also has everything to do with how you prepare the bottles beforehand, like storing it, building a wine list, or even just finding a good supplier of wine in the Philippines. 

There are many restaurants and bars that serve wine in Metro Manila, but a good number of them commit wine service no-nos that take away from your customers’ experience. In this article, we discuss the dos and don’ts of serving wine, from storing and chilling it to actually presenting it to your customers:

Before Service

Do: Make a wine list suited to your concept and locale

A good wine list doesn’t just bring in revenue: it is an extension of your menu that enhances your customers’ overall experience. That said, not just any wine will work for any establishment. There are factors like concept, pairings, climate, budget, storage, price tiering, and variety to take into consideration—and that isn’t even to mention the tastes of your actual clientele!

When in doubt, it’s always best to consult an expert (*wink*) to find the wines that fit your concept best, but you can also get started by checking out our full guide to making a smart wine list for a Filipino audience.

Don’t: Skimp on wine storage

Once you’ve procured all the bottles you need for your business, the absolute last thing you want to do at this point is ruin them all—and unfortunately, improper wine storage is actually a fairly common sight in Metro Manila!

Heat, light, and vibrations are your wine’s greatest enemies: all of them lead to spoilage. That said, wine should always be stored in a cool, dark place. Always avoid placing them anywhere near the heat of the kitchen, in a display case with hot artificial lights directed at it, or even by a window. If you’d want to go the extra

We’d recommend investing in an actual wine cellar or a proper wine chiller (ideally dual-zone for chillers, as the optimal temperature for red wine differs from white wine and sparkling wine)  to preserve your wine and keep it fresh.

If you plan to offer wine by the glass, then it’s also a good idea to invest in a wine preservation system to properly reseal open bottles and keep them fresh for much longer.

Do: Invest in proper and correct glassware

Wine glasses are shaped in a very distinctive way in order to let you taste everything your wine has to offer—they’re an essential part of the experience that some restaurants here in the Philippines decide to skip in favor of cheaper, similarly-shaped water goblets. But please believe us when we say that if a more wine-savvy guest buys a bottle and sees you pull out a normal water goblet for it, we can guarantee they will not be ordering it from you again.

We recommend that restaurants and bars serve their wine in crystal glassware instead of just glass: crystal is tougher, clearer, and thinner, making it a great choice overall.

Wine glass shapes also come in different shapes specifically tailored for different styles of wine. There are sparkling wine glasses (taller and skinnier, to keep bubbly cooler and effervescent for longer), red wine glasses (bigger bowls to let it breathe), and all-rounder glasses you can use for white, rosé, and orange wine.

If you’re a smaller establishment with still and sparkling wine offerings, having standard all-round wine glasses and Champagne flutes is already enough. However, if you specialize in wine or own a fine dining restaurant somewhere like glitzy BGC or Rockwell, it is generally expected for you to also have red wine glasses on hand, on top of those. If your lineup includes red wines that have been aged, a decanter would also be good for letting them breathe before service.

Be sure to inspect your glassware for any chips and stains, and polish it before service so it’s ready for your customers.

Don’t: Skip tasting the wine list and reviewing essential wine skills with your staff

Unless you have a dedicated sommelier working tables every night, it is absolutely crucial for every member of your service staff to be familiar with your wine list so that they can make informed recommendations.

Your team should at least know information like the name of the wine, maker, region, vintage, and some tasting notes. Even better if you can also let your staff actually try your wine offerings—especially with dishes to pair from your menu—so they actually have some personal experience to back their recommendations.

But beyond being able to discuss the wines and upsell, it’s also essential that your staff knows the basics of actually serving wine to a customer—from what kind of language to use in making recommendations, how to prepare the wine ahead of time, how to open the bottle for service standards, and how to present the wine to your guests.

Because of all these steps and nuances, we’d recommend getting an expert (*wink*) to actually train your staff if you do not already have a sommelier. 

During Service

Do: Present the wine list and make recommendations unprompted

Wine enhances the dining experience, but customers will only order it if they know it’s there. It is a must to present the wine list alongside the menu to give guests the time to think over what they want—-and when they finally do order, it pays to recommend wines that pair well with the dishes they plan to get. This is especially important when your restaurant specializes in a cuisine that isn’t conventionally enjoyed with wine, like Filipino food or Korean food: there’s a chance the combination may not have even occurred to your customer. A simple suggestion can go a long way, especially when you have personally tried it yourself!

Don’t: Go overboard with descriptions and terminology

Unless you know you’re serving an expert who would appreciate it, there’s rarely any need to bust out information about a wine the type of soil its grapes were grown in. Too much technical information can be intimidating for more casual guests, and it’s usually best to focus on the basic details of the wine, its tasting notes, and if there are any, an interesting or unusual details about it or the winemaker.

For example: If we were to serve Microbio Wines’s Nieva York, we’d highlight how people call winemaker Ismael Gozalo the wizard of Verdejo: the vast majority of his wines are distinctively different expressions of the exact same grape—which also gives us the opportunity to recommend also trying the Correcaminos, Sin Nombre, and Va-Llena x Jonas Pet Nat to see how!

Do: Chill your wine

Many people say that white and sparkling wines should be served chilled, and red wines at room temperature. However, the many people who do say this usually come from a temperate climate in the West where room temperature is around 19°C—and we strongly believe that this rule simply doesn’t apply to a tropical country like the Philippines, where room temperature is more likely to be around 25°C. Water can sometimes be unpleasant to drink at room temperature here, let alone something with lots of flavor.

That said, we usually recommend chilling all your wine. Sparkling wine or Champagne should be as close to ice cold as possible, while white wine ought to have been in the chiller for at least an hour—and both would ideally be served in an ice bucket if your customer has ordered a whole bottle. We also recommend chilling even red wine, especially light and juicy reds made from grapes like Pinot Noir and Gamay. For bolder wines, even just 10-20 minutes in a refrigerator or wine chiller makes a big difference!

Don’t: Just pour the wine and call it a day

If your customer has ordered a bottle for their table it is extremely important that the wine is correct and tastes exactly how it should—which is why there is actually an established process to presenting wine to a guest.

Before even opening the bottle, you must present it to the customer who ordered—show them the label, and announce the name of the  wine and its maker, vintage, and region of origin. If the customer confirms that this is the correct wine to be served, you can open it (yes, in front of them). If the bottle has a cork closure, wipe off the top of the bottle for any possible crumbs and present the cork to the guest in case they want to confirm that it matches the bottle (some may also want to smell it to see if the wine has gone bad).

Pour a small sample of wine into the customer’s glass and allow them to taste the wine for any faults. Once they’ve given their approval, you can serve the rest of the table, holding the bottle with a clean white napkin to keep it cool while also ensuring that the label is visible and facing guests as you pour.

Do: Pour wine in the correct order

While you might already be standing next to them, the host—or customer who ordered the wine—is actually traditionally served last.

Start instead with the guest seated to the host’s immediate left, always pouring from each person’s right. Take note of how many people will be drinking so you can adjust the portion for each—the average 750ml bottle of wine serves about five 150ml glasses of wine, and you may need to pour less if the party has six guests or more.

Continue clockwise until you’ve reached the host who ordered the wine. Confirm with the customer if they’d like an ice bucket to place the wine in, or if they’d prefer the bottle to be stored in the cellar in the meantime. If they choose the former, ensure that the ice bucket is within easy reach of the host. Regardless, make sure to keep an eye on the table to refill their wine glasses—and when the bottle is done, don’t miss the opportunity to ask if they’d like to order another bottle!

Where to get wine service training in the Philippines

There are many technicalities and nuances to wine service, and every step of the process is critical to your customers enjoying their evening at your bar or restaurant to the fullest. To ensure that you and your service staff have a good wine list and are ready to serve it, we would recommend getting help from an expert.

Beyond just being an importer, distributor, and supplier of natural wine in the Philippines, (Super)Natural offers wholesale pricing and complimentary wine service training for all our brand partners. Whether you’re putting together a special wine dinner or looking for the perfect bottles for your wine list, our WSET-certified team has the skill and knowledge to curate natural wines tailored for your menu and instruct your staff on how to best serve them.

Contact us at cheers@supernaturalwine.ph to start building your wine list for your concept and help train your team for service-standard training.