Midwest Wine Appearing in More Top Restaurants

Salt of the Earth Rustic American Eatery and Bakery in Fennville, Michigan has a dozen Michigan labels on its wine list.

The event was an upscale food expo in Cleveland. I was pouring wine samples; the fellow pouring at the next table owned an award-winning winery in northeast Ohio. Our conversation turned to restaurant wine lists–specifically, why don’t we see more local wines listed?

‘Beats me,” he said, ‘and it makes no sense. They talk about using local produce, local meats, farm-to-table everything–and they carry wines from France, California, everyplace but Ohio.”

His point is valid: why don’t more restaurants carry regional Midwest wine–and more importantly, how can regional wineries get onto their wine lists?

‘I suspect it’s probably a little more expensive, takes a little more legwork to carry regional wines,” says Jon Trasky, general manager of The State Room Restaurant and Lounge in East Lansing, Michigan. His 17-page wine list features dozens of Michigan wines; they show up in nearly every category from Riesling to rosé. Trasky concedes that as part of the Kellogg Hotel & Conference Center at Michigan State University, it follows that he would carry Michigan wines.

Still, he has a choice, and he sees buying local as good business: ‘What’s good for Michigan is good for us,” he says. ‘We live here, so we want to do all we can to support Michigan businesses.”

Every restaurant and winery owner we interviewed agreed on the chief reason for carrying a local wine: because it tastes as good as wines from the ‘major” wine regions. ‘That’s the biggest factor for us,” says Nolan Cleary, beverage manager for Lola Bistro in Cleveland, one of several restaurants owned by Michael Symon, TV’s ‘Iron Chef” and star of  “The Chew.”  ‘For us, quality is a big motivator; we’re not going to bring in local products if they’re inferior.”

For Cleary, carrying local wines was serendipitous. An owner of Laurello Vineyards in Geneva, Ohio is a regular at Lola and brought in some Vidal ice wine for Cleary to taste. It landed on the wine list. The other winery whose wines Cleary serves–Harpersfield Winery, also in Geneva–is on the wine list because, according to Harpersfield owner Patty Ribic, the Iron Chef himself ‘heard the buzz” and visited the winery.

“We’re a very small producer, just 3,000 gallons. Since we only use our own grapes, we’re at the mercy of Mother Nature.  There’s a finite amount so we watch where our wine goes and I guess that impressed [Symon],” Ribic recalls.  Symon’s bar manager called, they met, and as a result, Lola Bistro became Ribic’s only restaurant outlet.

Farmhouse Tavern, one of Chicago’s newest hot spots (open just 10 weeks at this writing and pictured on the homepage), is trying a more inclusive tactic, offering wines from throughout the Midwest. ‘All of our sparkling wine is from Michigan,” says Robert Diaz, manager, ‘and we carry wines from Indiana, and even a Riesling and pinot noir from Firelands Winery in Ohio.”  Wine selection,  he says, can be easy.  “Put together some reds and whites from Argentina, Australia, and France, and your customers will be reasonably happy. But if you want to stand out from the crowd, you need to seek out the smaller players, offer something different.”

Taste is Diaz’s top priority, and he speculates that perhaps more restaurants don’t offer local wines ‘because a lot of the root stock in the Midwest isn’t old,” he says. ‘Europe and California have been growing grapes for a very long time, and older vines sometimes make better wine.”

Michigan wines ‘sort of fly under the radar,” says Mark Schrock, owner of Salt of the Earth in Fennville, Michigan, ‘but we produce some of the finest Riesling out there.” One of the most expensive wines on his wine list–’Shou,” a Bordeaux-style blend from Wyncroft Winery–is a Michigan wine with limited production. ‘You feel like the winemaker has examined every grape when you drink it, it’s that well crafted,” Schrock says. ‘If you want to be on a good wine list, quality is everything.”

Carey Amigoni, whose family owns Amigoni Urban Winery in Kansas City, agrees. ‘There’s no question,” she says, ‘a Cab Franc is a Cab Franc. If you make a pretty good one, people will want it.”

That view is echoed by the Wine Business Institute, which surveyed sommeliers of 74 restaurants in 2009. The results were unanimous: 100 percent ranked ‘tasting good” as the top factor in selecting wines for their lists. Nearly 98 percent ranked ‘matches with food menu” as the second priority, followed closely by ‘competitive price fit” and ‘balance of varieties.” Sixty-two percent said they prefer to buy locally–a bit surprising, since relatively few high-end restaurants offer regional wines–and only 35 percent said they would list a particular wine to maximize profits. Zero respondents said they relied on a supplier’s recommendations in buying wine.

Marketing, however, is critical to getting on wine lists, especially for small wineries. ‘Usually, a small distributor will do a good job for small wineries,” Carey Amigoni says, ‘where with a big distributor, the small wineries sort of disappear.” Amigoni likes her distributor, but she sometimes accompanies him on calls to new restaurants: ‘You have to go with them, personalize it, enjoy the wine with the bar manager, help sell it.”

That means talking up anything that would appeal to customers. If your wine is certified organic or Biodynamic, mention that to the bar manager. If Justin Timberlake or Bette Midler ordered a glass, or if it was fermented in barrels made of a special wood, that’s worth a mention. Anything that helps create a memorable experience for the customer will help sell your wine.

Megan Zander, bar manager at Blue Bird Bistro in Kansas City, offers wines by Amigoni as well as locally brewed beers and liquor from a local distillery. ‘Everything’s of the highest quality,” she says, ‘but we also want to talk to the winery owner and other producers. It’s about building relationships–you have to be as passionate about your wine as we are about our restaurant.”

Patty Ribic agrees: ‘Let’s face it, there are a million wineries out there. You have to have passion for your wine–put out a product you’re proud of.”

As for the future, Mark Schrock believes, ‘more and more, `local’ translates to sales,” he says. ‘Our guests are asking for it–but you’ve got to bring your best stuff.”

‘I think you’re going to see people take notice of local wines over the next 10 years,” Robert Diaz predicts. ‘Wineries should start now, creating and developing relationships with restaurants and restaurant groups, and good things will happen.

‘Get into a few good restaurants and people will start noticing–and buying–your wine.”