I’M FASCINATED by wine lists. The biggest one I ever struggled to pick up was several inches thick.
In 900 pages it described several thousand wines in exhaustive detail. I was bewitched by it, but I sympathise with the person on TripAdvisor who thought it ‘ridiculous’.
A good list need not be long, but it should be accurate (it’s amazing how many aren’t), fun to read without being pretentious, cover most tastes and still leave room for a few surprises. It’s quite a tall order, and I admire those who get it right.
One of them is Richard Pickles, who works for leading wine importers Bibendum. His patch is North Yorkshire and the North East.
I asked him to describe a typical working week. Wine lists come high up the list – designing them and keeping them up to date – and a lot of time is spent training staff, he told me.
“It’s about introducing new wines, refreshing knowledge and advising on food and wine matching.
“I like to spend time training conference and banquet staff. If someone’s going to spend a lot of money on wine for a wedding breakfast or other special occasion, they need help to make sure that they choose right.”
We met at the De Vere Village Hotel on North Tyneside’s Cobalt Business Park, a big customer. His next stop was St James’ Park to plan a gourmet wine dinner next month. And in between servicing established clients like these, he’s out looking for new business.
“It’s the lifeblood of any company,” he says.
“I don’t class myself as a salesman, though. I love wine and I just happen to sell it.”
But I suspect that he’s rather good at sales. He’s proud that Bibendum managed a turnover of £200m last year and that business is strong. His impressive list of clients also includes Slaley Hall, Longhirst Hall, Rockliffe Hall, the Sage Gateshead, Hotel du Vin, Gusto and The Living Room.
A bit of business that he’s particularly proud of is with the award-winning Battlesteads Hotel at Wark.
“I saw that they were Green Pub of the Year in 2010. We at Bibendum had just won a drinks industry prize as Green Company of the Year, so I went to see them.
“There was a real synergy there, it was amazing. We decided to work together and two months ago we won Pub Wine List of the Year. I’m very, very proud that they let me put a thoroughly green wine list together.
“And do you know, since we did it, their sales are up 27%!”
Richard praises the passion of the staff at Battlesteads. Passion is a word he uses a lot. It’s plain to see, as he has no hesitation in saying for himself, that he loves his job, even given that he has to sit behind the wheel of his car for 30,000 miles every year and though he’d far sooner be exploring the highways and byways of the region on his beloved Harley Davidson.
He came into the wine industry after a varied career involving the police force, hotel management and then owning his own small hotel. He and his wife Louise sold the business in 2006 “at just the right time” and Richard joined local wine importers Playford Ros. When they got into difficulty and were bought out, he moved to Bibendum.
His background at the “sharp end” of the hotel and restaurant trade clearly gives him a head start, but his fascination with wine is long-standing. It’s one of the main reasons that prompted him to go into the hotel trade in the first place.