Name:  Paul N. Kornfeind II, CCM

Club:  Prestwick Country Club

Description:  Enhance membership satisfaction, boosted wine sales, stimulated wine interest, increased cash flow, increased cover counts, created a great incentive for your staff, and most important drove revenue straight to the bottom line!

Implementation:  Flyers, posters, emails, newsletter and word of mouth.  The members loved it so much participation levels jumped the second year.  This event was very well received.

Name:  Bruce W. Pruitt, CCM

Club:  The Los Angeles Country Club

Description:  So often, members are either cost conscious or in the habit of searching for good wines at low prices that they seldom have the opportunity to experience rare and often overpriced wines.  By collecting high-end wines in the Club’s cellar over many years, we have been able to format dinners that allow members to experience several rare wines at a fraction of the price they might pay for only one of the wines.

Implementation:  The Club has developed relationships with several “high-end” producers that quite often allocate their wines to a select clientele.  This coupled with reacting quickly to wines produce during great vintages has allowed the Club to develop a strong Cellar.  The premier events have been subscribed at maximum capacity.

Name:  Mark Maroon

Club:  The Kansas City Country Club

Description:  Our idea was to train extensively and specifically a chosen group of servers and bartenders wine knowledge using a private, very focused and quiet setting.

Implementation:  We choose four bartenders and two servers, along with management to come in on multiple afternoons, while getting paid, to learn without distractions.  We assigned homework, took quizzes and had tastings with and without food to better educate our palates.  We talked openly as a group and shared our tasting notes in a comfortable environment.  They all received a wine key pin after completion of all our classes.

Name:  Randy Ruder, CCM

Club:  Beach Point Club

Description:  Pricing on wine at the club has changed the past few years and now most wines are only marked up $5 per bottle over cost.  The marginal mark up has created a larger volume of wine sales.  The program has evolved from selling a few bottles a week to over a case on most evenings.

Implementation:  Members and guests marvel at our prices.  People can’t pass up this incredible bargain while dining and now our cuisine is able to be supplemented with amazing wine.

Name:  Mike Ostlund

Club:  The Club at Cordillera-Timber Hearth Grille

Description:  The Cordillera Wine Club had no starting costs, but has produced over $23,000 in additional wine revenues since its inception in the Summer of 2006.  The Wine Club was developed for the sole purpose of driving revenues at no cost.

Implementation:  The Wine Club was introduced to Cordillera’s members through our F/B newsletter.  The value was immediately recognized and word of mouth quickly sold more memberships, as well as wine.

Name:  Ryan Spence

Club:  Atlanta Athletic Club

Description:  Wine promotions have increased our bottle wine sales.  We are able to rotate our inventory more frequently.  Educating our member leads to the members buying wines they are not familiar with.

Implementation:  Members are very receptive to trying different wines if the education is there.  Members are enjoying the discounted wines.

Name:  Philip R. Kiester

Club:  Farmington Country Club

Description:  Farmington recently redesigned its wine menus and needed a way to introduce the new menus to membership.  The club hosts a members-only Festivus cocktail party each fall.  The event is very popular and was the ideal setting to promote the new wines.  Immediately following the debut, members embraced the new wine menus and wine sales increased.

Implementation:  Tasting stations were separated by the menu they represented; the Farmington Grill, the Terrace Dining Room, and wines by the glass.  Members were able to taste wines and comment on the selections.  Member’s comments on the selections were considered before the menus were implemented at the Club.  Members felt involved in the selection process and were more aware of the changes taking place.

Name:  Paul M.G. Astbury

Club:  Ocean Reef Club

Description:  The Quest for Dom is an incentive program for all servers in the Clubhouse dining room, which has helped not only to boost overall wine sales, but also provided motivation for each server to become very knowledgeable about each particular wine on the list.  Service staff has found the program to be both competitive and fun, while  members have discovered their servers to be well educated in the variety of wines available at the club.

Implementation:  The promotion begins with a list, appropriately in the shape of a champagne bottle, posted a at the Clubhouse servers’ station, which includes every wine that the clubhouse sells.  Each server has the entire season to sell every wine on the list, and with the sale of each particular bottle, the server earns a star.  The winner is the first server to sell every bottle of wine listed, and like the incentive’s name, the prize is a bottle of Dom Perignon Champagne.

Name:  Marisu Jimenez

Club:  The Athenaeum

Description:  The different wine programs - monthly spirits and wine tastings, wine cellar dinners, winemaker dinners and wine pairings for a la carte dinner – have been successful in making our members aware of our expansive and relatively inexpensive selections available on our wine list.  The wine cellar dinners have particularly been successful because attendance is limited to a few – 14 at one seating.  These dinners are usually sold out 3 months in advance.

Implementation:  The wines and spirits tastings are held monthly which may feature anything from vertical tastings to regional wines.  The wine cellar dinners are held the last Wednesday of each month and have always sold out.  The Winemaker dinner is an annual event, planned in collaboration with the club’s wine committee.

Name:  George P. Carroll

Club:  Interlachen Country Club

Description:  Inspired by George M. Taber’s book “Judgment of Pars”, Interlachen hosted a wine dinner giving their members a chance to compare the best of France vs. the best of California.  This was a most “elite” wine dinner.

Implementation:  We hosted a tasting with dinner on New Years Eve.  The reaction was a night that people could never forget when they tried the best wine in the world.

Name:  Eric Gregory

Club:  California Yacht Club

Description:  The 3 levels of wine events provides wine lovers of all levels an event suited for them.  From casual to formal events, tastings, education and wine and food pairings generate interest and excitement in our wine program, and what it adds to our food an beverage operation.

Implementation:  The members love the opportunity not only to attend the events, but to b able to purchase wines at 10% above the club’s wholesale costs.  Working with the wine vendors, we keep event costs low by getting product and expertise donated.