Before you pitch a restaurant, find out whether you are allowed to sell to it. In most of the United States a winery or importer cannot sell directly to a restaurant. The bottle has to go through a licensed distributor, and the person who walks into the restaurant is that distributor's sales rep. The rules differ state by state, so everything below is general information, not legal advice. Check with your state's alcohol beverage control agency before you quote a price.

That one fact changes the whole job. If you make the wine, your sale is to a distributor first and a restaurant second. If you are the rep, your sale is a tasting and a list placement. Both paths end with a bottle on a list, and both start with a beverage manager who has about ten minutes of attention between lunch and dinner service.

Who may sell what

The US setup after Prohibition is called the three-tier system: producers and importers sell to distributors, distributors sell to retailers and on-premise accounts (restaurants and bars), and those accounts sell to the public. Some states have exceptions, such as small-winery self-distribution or direct shipping, and some are control states where the state itself is the wholesaler for part of the market. The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) licenses producers and importers. Your state agency licenses distributors and retailers.

  • Producer or importer: sells to a distributor, sometimes to restaurants directly where state law allows self-distribution.
  • Distributor: holds the license to sell and deliver to restaurants. Reps work for them.
  • Restaurant: buys from its distributors' reps, usually weekly.

How a restaurant actually buys wine

A wine director or beverage manager keeps a small set of distributor relationships, often four to eight. She orders against a par level, say 12 cases of the house red a month, and adds new wines when a bottle sells out, a season turns or a menu changes. A new wine has to replace something or fill a hole. The question she is asking is "what do I drop?" so name the hole when you write: a mineral white for the oyster menu, a $45 red under the $60 mark, a sparkling for a brunch cocktail list.

Pour-cost math, using one bottle

Run the numbers for her before she does. Suppose your Albariño costs her $22 a bottle from the distributor. She lists it at $62, a markup of about 2.8 times, which sits within the two-to-three-times range many restaurants use for bottle prices. A bottle holds roughly 25 ounces. At five-ounce glasses, that is five glasses, and at $14 a glass she takes in $70 if every pour sells. On a bottle sale at $62 she keeps $40. Do not tell her what to charge. Show her you understand that the price she can list has to fit her menu, and she is the one who sets it.

Restaurants worth the visit

Sort the list by wine program, because it tells you what to bring. A 20-label list at a seafood restaurant needs different bottles from a steakhouse with 200. Check each restaurant's online list before you write. If they already have three Spanish whites and you sell a fourth, move on. If their white list stops at Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, you have an opening. Our guide to finding local business leads shows how to build the restaurant list, and how to find a business owner's email address gets you to the person who orders.

Two bottles, priced for the menu

The standard first offer is a tasting of two bottles, not a binder. Pick one wine that fills a hole and one that is a safe step above. Bring each with a one-line price: "Albariño, $22 a bottle by the case, lists well at $58 to $64." Visit between 2 and 4 p.m., when kitchens are quieter, or ask for an appointment. Pour small. Leave a printed sheet with the price, the case size and a delivery date.

A first email to a beverage manager

Subject: Tasting two whites for the oyster menu?

Hi Carmen, I'm a rep with Harbor & Vine Wine Co., a licensed distributor in the county. I saw your white list runs Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, and your oyster menu looks like a good fit for a dry Albariño I'm carrying at $22 a bottle. May I stop by Tuesday between 2 and 3 with two bottles to pour? I'll leave a price sheet and I'm happy to skip the visit if the timing is bad.

Wes Duarte, Harbor & Vine Wine Co., 300 Quay Street

If you are a producer without a distributor yet, the email changes. Write to a distributor's portfolio manager: "I make a 1,200-case Albariño and I'm looking for a distributor in your market. I've had interest from three restaurants and can send tech sheets and pricing." Restaurant interest is the proof a distributor wants to see.

Following up after the tasting

Two days later, send one line: "Which of the two would you want to try on the list, and for how many cases?" Do not ask whether she liked it. If she says she will add it, confirm the first order through her usual ordering channel with your distributor's rep. If she says no, ask whether another wine would fit and note the answer. If you hear nothing, check back after her next menu change. Our piece on following up after a meeting has wording that works here.

Staying on the list when reps change

Reps move between distributors, and a wine can disappear from a restaurant because the person who poured it left. Keep a small record for every account: who orders, what they bought, when, and which menu change is coming. Share it with your distributor so the next rep inherits it. Check in at the start of each season, before the menu is final, rather than after.

If you want to build the restaurant list and send the first emails without doing it by hand, Rocketship finds the buyers by name and writes to them from your own Gmail, then follows up for you. More on how the AI workers run it. Desserts sold to the same kitchens run on a different price logic, covered in how to sell desserts to restaurants, and so does produce, since freshness decides the order.

Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and both Launch and Frontier start with a 7-day free trial, card required.