A Wine & Cheese business idea

Originally Posted by Samir

I received some help from Gordon this morning and it reminded me that I haven't been to sowpub lately so I thought I would pay a visit and share and idea that has been running through my head.

A friend of mine just had a house warming party and she asked everyone to bring a bottle of wine paired with a cheese.

I didn't know anything about wine & cheese pairing so I did some research and found a couple of different types of cheeses that pair well with many types of wines.

I picked up my wine bottle at the wine depot and the cheese from the supermarket and it occurred to me that wouldn't it be great if the wine store sold cheese as well? Especially if the wine selections also mentioned what type of cheese they best pair with? The cheese would also have a label on it that identifies which wine it best pairs with.

I think this could be valuable in many ways including:
1. Saving wine buyers from making a separate trip to the supermarket/cheese shop
2. Eliminating the education required to pick the right wine and cheese combo
3. Offering the stores a risk free way to earn extra and increase customer satisfaction

The way to run this business would be to supply the wine store with cheeses that are already labeled with the correct wine pairing.

Labels/stickers can also be placed next to the wine selection, mentioning which cheese they pair with and the fact that the store sells cheese as well.


What do you folks think?

Sounds good on paper. However if your area is like mine, the local super market chains already perform this service. The 2 that come to mind are Raley's and Scolari's. Both are family owned and are local to NV and CA. If these folks had the idea, do you suppose owners in your area also had the idea.

BTW, Whole Foods (I think that's their name) also does cooking seminars and wine and cheese pairing seminars and other food related seminars in their store on Virginia St - a main N to S thoroughfare running through Reno.

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket but if the dufuses in podunk NV have thought of it, I'd bet the illuminati in the real world have already thunk of it too.

Just my 2¢...

Tom

Originally Posted by sandalwood

Sounds good on paper. However if your area is like mine, the local super market chains already perform this service. The 2 that come to mind are Raley's and Scolari's. Both are family owned and are local to NV and CA. If these folks had the idea, do you suppose owners in your area also had the idea.

BTW, Whole Foods (I think that's their name) also does cooking seminars and wine and cheese pairing seminars and other food related seminars in their store on Virginia St - a main N to S thoroughfare running through Reno.

I'm not trying to be a wet blanket but if the dufuses in podunk NV have thought of it, I'd bet the illuminati in the real world have already thunk of it too.

Just my 2¢...

Tom

Hi Tom...thanks for your input. Do the stores you mention have it laid out as self-service (in the form of the labeling idea I mentioned) or do they have experts available to answer your wine & cheese pairing questions?

There are two wholefoods near me and although they carry a wide selection of cheeses, neither of them sells wines.

Thanks
-Samir

Originally Posted by Samir

Hi Tom...thanks for your input. Do the stores you mention have it laid out as self-service (in the form of the labeling idea I mentioned) or do they have experts available to answer your wine & cheese pairing questions?

There are two wholefoods near me and although they carry a wide selection of cheeses, neither of them sells wines.

Thanks
-Samir

The stores I mentioned each have a spokes lady who does their ads and is available to the general public in one of their stores on a rotating basis. The location is always advertised in advance and usually well attended. On a daily basis a consumer can consult with the liquor/wine manager who, as far as I can tell, pretty well versed in cheese wine pairings. These stores seem to go out of their way to be consumer friendly. I might just be experiencing a market phenomenon and don't even know it.

As for the whole foods remark I made, I may have them mixed with another store on South Virginia. If I did, I'm sorry about taking their name in vain.

I think your idea is a good one. I would suspect you would have to do a ton of footwork to get it off the ground but if that's all it takes and you have the time, may you enjoy all the success in the world. I am not an expert in that field by any means.

Oh, this just popped into my pea brain. One of the local liquor stores (4 outlets in this area) hosts a Friday night, summer time wine tasting. The servers are reps from the various wineries. They always have cheese and crackers laid out with a blurb about which of their wines goes with which cheese. As far as I can tell, none of the liquor store's employees knows a darned thing about wine/cheese pairings. You might hit this arena first and educate the employees so they can sell more wine. Again, just my 2¢.

Tom