Components of a Great Club Wine List
What criteria should we use to define a great country club wine list? Well, it’s not quite as simple as building or maintaining a restaurant wine list, assuming that’s easy to begin with.
First and foremost, it must reflect the tastes and level of knowledge of the membership, as opposed to the general public.
It should offer options that enable pairing with the food program, whether that’s a burger at the 19th hole or a gala night out.
It should provide regional and grape diversity and offer both familiar wines and even some that challenge members to explore beyond their comfort zones.
Prices that fit the general budgets of the membership, and ideally some degree of subsidization since after all it exists to serve them. In other words it should cost less to drink a bottle at the Club than the same wine at a restaurant.
And speaking of prices, a broad range that supports everything from a casual weeknight dinner to an all-out splurge.
At least some recognizable names that give less knowledgeable members an anchor, but also reward more devoted drinkers.
A strong by-the-glass program. Trained staff or at least one person on the floor always after 5PM who knows something about wine and can answer questions.
Glassware appropriate for the service of fine wine. Education in the form of dinners and tastings with winemakers and outside experts.
And let’s not forget a reasonable corkage policy for special and/or memorable bottles gracefully aging in a member’s cellar.
It’s worth circling back to talk about the concept of value on a club list. As far as we’re concerned, a great club list will offer the member lower prices for comparable bottles than they would find in a public restaurant. It says two things to us when this happens. First, the club has the financial strength to “buy and hold,” that is, obtain wines at lower prices and age them in appropriate storage. Second, by passing on the savings to members to one extent or another, it demonstrates an understanding of the role wine plays in enhancing the overall member experience.
Just as the evaluation of a golf course itself will always be subjective, swigcoach.com will not seek to assert that any one club list is the best of the best. Instead we’ll create tiers, or better yet “flights” that reflect a wine program’s commitment to excellence. To make it to the champion flight a Club list must demonstrate all of the above criteria at an advanced level. We have a proprietary approach to measure this and make it as quantitative as possible, using a familiar 100 point scale. It works like this:
· Above 95 points: world class, comparable to the finest restaurants in the world, only better because it’s less of a jolt to the wallet
· 90-94 points: A great wine program, one that touches all the bases but may lack the depth, breadth or value of the very best
· 85-89 points: An honest effort, something to like for most occasions
What wine does a private club golfer want to drink? At some point we’ll attempt to prove it more scientifically with a survey, but we’ve got a lot of insights from personal experience. The American golfer, like the rest of the American wine drinking public willing to spend more than about $25 for a bottle of wine, prefers California cabernet to everything else. There’s no point in arguing it. Beyond that it’s all about the membership’s interests and the ambitions of a wine committee, if one exists. In general, in an aspirational program on the red side of the card, beyond US borders you will find allegiance to the killer “B’s”: Barolo, Barbaresco, Brunello, Bordeaux, and Burgundy. In whites, chardonnay dominates, with sauvignon blanc on its heels. Beyond that, it’s a big exciting world of wine out there and the best club wine programs will continually strive to push the envelope on quality, value and new experiences for their membership.
