Nov 13, 2026
Last Updated: November 12, 2026
At Swallow Drinks, we don’t consider a wine sale successful when the cases leave our warehouse—we consider it a success when a customer places a reorder. Helping venues actually move wine from their cellars to their guests’ glasses is at the heart of everything we do.
Today, however, the hospitality landscape presents a unique challenge. Many front-of-house teams are composed of young staff aged 18 to 25 who often lack experience with wine—and, increasingly, many do not drink alcohol themselves. Asking a young server to recommend a £40 bottle of Pinot Noir when they have never tasted it, or aren't personally interested in wine, sets both the staff member and the venue up for missed opportunities.
When team members feel uncertain, they default to the path of least resistance: pouring the house wine or staying silent altogether. Bridging that gap doesn't require turning every server into a master sommelier; it requires practical, accessible wine training paired with clear service standards. With over 30 years experience in the drinks trade, our Wine controller is able to train your staff, at your venue, to assist in many basic aspects of selling wine. We can create your wine list and then help you sell it to your customers !
The biggest barrier to upselling wine is fear—specifically, the fear of mispronouncing a grape variety, not knowing how to answer a guest’s question, or recommending something the guest dislikes. Structured staff training, that Swallow Drinks provides free of charge to trading wine customers, removes that anxiety by focusing on three fundamentals:
Knowledge alone isn't enough if the execution at the table falls flat. Wine carries a higher perceived value—and higher profit margin—than almost any other item on a drinks menu, which means guests expect a level of care that matches the price tag.
A Win-Win for Venues, Staff, and Guests
Investing in wine training and service standards pays dividends across the board. Guests receive better recommendations and enjoy their meal more. Venues see higher average spend, stronger margins, and healthier stock turnover. Most importantly, young hospitality teams gain real-world confidence, earn better tips, and feel proud of the service they deliver.
The Swallow Drinks Takeaway
When your team knows the list and masters the basics of service, wine stops being an intimidating hurdle—and becomes your venue’s most reliable driver of growth.
Staff turnover in hospitality is high, so venues regularly lose the product knowledge they build up. Wine training gives new starters a repeatable script for recommending and serving wine, which protects your average spend per head when the team changes. It also builds confidence: a server who understands the list is far less likely to default to the house pour or say nothing at all, and confident recommendations are what turn a first sale into a reorder.
They do not need to taste a wine to sell it well. Train staff on the descriptors already written on your list, the food pairings each wine suits, and a simple question or two to narrow the choice, such as whether the guest prefers something crisp or fuller-bodied. A structured wine training session gives non-drinking staff the same vocabulary as everyone else, and a supplier like Swallow Drinks can run that session at your venue so nobody is left improvising.
Present the bottle so the guest can check the label, open it at the table, pour a small taste for the host, then serve the rest in order of seniority, topping up as glasses empty. Keep the bottle visible or in a cooler within reach, and never fill a glass more than two-thirds. These restaurant wine service steps take minutes to teach but they signal competence, and consistent delivery is one of the clearest markers of operational excellence in hospitality.
Track three numbers before and after training: bottles sold per head, the share of sales above your house wine, and how often staff make a recommendation at all. A short debrief at the end of each shift, asking what sold and what did not, keeps the programme alive. If your wine list design is sound and staff are following the service steps, you should see movement within a few weeks, and the real test is whether customers come back and order the same bottle again.
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