Your menu is the starting point. Our wine matching tool helps you find the bottles to go with it.
Choosing the right wines for a restaurant menu takes more than picking a few popular bottles. The best wine lists complement the food, suit the style of the venue and work financially for the business.
But with so many wines to choose from, knowing where to start can be a challenge.
That's why we've developed a wine matching tool for our trade customers at Gerrard Seel Wine Merchants. Designed with hospitality businesses in mind, it takes your menu and matches individual dishes with suitable wines from our portfolio, explaining why each pairing works.
From menu to wine matches
The process starts with your menu. Rather than offering generic recommendations, the tool looks at individual dishes and identifies wines from our range that could work alongside them.
- Whether you're serving classic French bistro dishes, seasonal plates or a varied à la carte menu, the aim is to find wines that complement what you're putting on the plate.
- Each recommendation comes with an explanation of the pairing, highlighting how the wine's characteristics work with the flavours, textures and ingredients of the dish.
- It's a useful starting point for exploring options you may not have considered, discovering new ways to pair your existing dishes and identifying wines that could earn a place on your list.
More than just a pairing suggestion
Good wine matching is about more than finding a wine that tastes good with a particular dish. It also needs to make sense for your business.
The tool brings together wine recommendations and useful information, including suggested selling prices and gross profit percentages. This gives you a clearer picture of how different wines could work on your list, whether you're pricing by the bottle or the glass.
It can help you explore options at different price points, review the balance of your current selection and consider where there might be opportunities to improve your offering.
Built around your business
Every hospitality business has its own style, customers and financial priorities. Starting with your menu helps make the recommendations relevant to what you actually serve, rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all selection.
You can use the tool to support a new wine list, review an existing one or explore alternatives within the Gerrard Seel portfolio. It can also give your team a useful starting point for understanding why a particular wine has been selected and how to talk about it with customers.
And because the recommendations draw from our portfolio, they offer a practical way to explore wines available through us, with your Gerrard Seel account manager on hand to help refine the selection.
Technology that works alongside our wine expertise
The tool makes it easier to explore the possibilities, but choosing the right wines for your business is still a personal process.
Our account managers bring an understanding of your venue, your customers and your commercial priorities that goes beyond a menu alone. They can help you assess the recommendations, explore alternatives and refine the selection to suit your style of service, price points and margins.
Think of the tool as a starting point: a way to uncover ideas, understand potential pairings and make the most of our portfolio. From there, your account manager can help turn those suggestions into a wine list that works for your business.
It's another way we're combining technology with the personal service and wine knowledge our customers have come to expect from Gerrard Seel.
Want to see what it could do with your menu?
Get in touch with your Gerrard Seel account manager to find out more about our wine matching tool and how it could help you build a wine list that works for your food, your customers and your business.
Email us or call 01925 819 695 to start the conversation.