Design
How to run a by-the-glass program that actually moves
Stop leaving BTG on autopilot. Rotate slow bottles onto glass, test styles, keep the list alive in busy season. Sister page to BTG pricing.
Written by Marco Azzari on
Pricing the glass is half. The other half is treating by the glass as a program you still touch after the first print. Most BTG lists freeze when the room gets busy. Guests drink the same two pours until spring. Slow bottles sit in the dark instead of in a glass.
Sister page (the number): how to price wine by the glass. This page is the motion.
Rotation without writing "on sale"
A discount on the list teaches guests to wait. A rotation onto glass moves stock and changes the conversation: "this is what we are pouring these two weeks." Use wines that have stalled, not only wines the rep wants to place. Dead stock.
If the surface cannot change (paper with no insert, a PDF nobody owns), the program cannot exist. Print versus digital.
Test a style on purpose
Higher-margin styles never get a chance if the glass list is the same three big-brand Chardonnays and Cabernets you have poured since 2017. Pick one new glass because it sits with a dish, not because a tasting was fun. Give it a sayable line. Kill it in two weeks if it does not move. That is cheaper than buying a case "for the list."
Flights and smaller pours (a 3 oz taste next to the 5 or 6 oz glass) can lower the fear of a commitment. They do not replace knowing profit per pour. If you cannot cost the flight, you are running a party.
Busy season is when programs die
The excuse is always the same: no time. Patio season, the holidays, a new menu launch. The cost is a quarter of mix you cannot explain in the review. Put BTG on the same calendar as the food specials, or admit you do not have a program.
Preservation (Coravin and friends) is a tool for expensive pours you otherwise would not open. It is not a personality. If the maths of the tool plus the waste you still have does not beat a simpler glass, skip the theater.
If you want the numbers live, instead of in a spreadsheet you open twice a year, Cavekey puts by-the-glass, the list, inventory, and true cost per pour on one screen. The base version is free.
About the author
Marco Azzari
Founder of Wine CFO · Wine List Engineer for restaurants
I help restaurants, hotels and bars earn more from the wine they already sell. I price lists wine by wine, cost by-the-glass programs on their real yield, rebuild selections around the food menu, and rewrite lines so guests understand what they're ordering. Every Wine Profit Checkup goes across my desk personally.
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