Howdy! I just opened Ethos Wine & Tea in Charlottesville, VA, and we're learning from our guests what folks are looking for in a wine bar experience. Tell me what is most important to you:
- large selection of wines by-the-glass (we have 15 currently and maybe 40 more BTB)
- the quality/diversity of the wines BTG
- smaller glass list, extensive bottle list (maybe 6 BTG and 100+ BTB)
- food specials
- ambience/activities/events
Currently we offer wines by the glass, half bottle, and bottle, and offer a Bartender's Choice Wine flight, which is three half pours of our daily faves.
by AdventurousValue1297
26 Comments
First, congrats on your grand opening and best of luck with your business.
I think a good selection and diversity in the BtG is most valuable to me when I visit a wine bar.
Also, good on you for listening to your patrons!
* A good selection of wine by the glass, also if a client wants a glass of a wine not on the list, open it for him and offer it to other customers. (always know how much you’ll charge by the glass for each wine)
* Good curated selection of wine.
* Nice glasses, don’t go overboard, they break and can
* Offer wine flights.
* Allow people to order 2, 3 wines at the same time if they want to do their own custom tasting.
* Small selection of food that is easily paired with most of the wines.
I would rather have an extensive bottle list of good value vs. an extensive btg list of mediocre wines at poor value. Which tends to be the typical trade off if you need to pay back the bottle cost in one pour.
> ambience/activities/events
> Bartender’s Choice Wine flight
Just these for me tbh.
Above average bites that are enjoyable woth wine, specials like tastings,
For me the things I look for and prefer are a larger than normal by the glass list, preferably with something at least a couple of years old in each category. “Wine Bars” with 3 or less wines by the glass in each section are an absolute miss for the wife and I. When we go out to a wine bar specifically our goal is to try wines that we normally don’t have at home. So a good selection btg really lets us have the best experience.
Food I’d say small plates and charcuterie esque style is what I go for but again that is my own personal opinion.
Don’t order bottles too much since lists are normally average and/or exorbitant in price. Also it’s a wine bar, not a bottle shop.
An underrated thing I think is having bartenders/servers who are also knowledgeable and maybe a little geeky about wine. It’s nice to talk and get their perspective. Vibes overall are important.
Congrats on your new journey and good luck!
Rotating premium by the glass pours. I’d be more inclined to stop in to a wine bar repeatedly if I knew they had at least one or two different and really nice bottles open at any given time. You could even do like… Burgundy Thursdays or Champagnes on Sundays. Don’t have to go crazy ordering cases upon cases of any of these premium wines, but say you get a case of something, and commit to opening up to 3 bottles of “X” on a Saturday night. The rest you have for your bottle list.
honestly a wine sub is probably the wrong crowd to ask for suggestions on owning/operating an eatery (unless you’re in the Bay area or NYC). You’re going to get very specialized wino preferences that won’t cross-over into what general under-35’s want. Like maybe a sports bar with BTG selections would be a bigger hit? Or maybe a salon-style spa treatment center where girls can get mani/pedi, facials & color while sipping on wines? Or maybe a grub spot where a rotating cast of gourmet food trucks can offer eats? A wine bar for its own sake is a hard sell in 2025.
I’ve always thought that featuring a particular winery’s wine for a perhaps a month would be interesting. See if you could get the cases at a bit of a discount if you make available information on how someone can join their wine club. That way you cycle through lots of interesting wines.
I look for a large and varied, but rotating, BTG selection. I suppose the wine list could remain set and still accommodate this.
Especially for a place that will become a regular spot for me, I like to know that my wife and I can have a conversation about what’s new and try something interesting that I didn’t have the last time I was there. A good example for me is Wine Lab in Costa Mesa, CA. They have interesting wines on offer and staff that likes to talk about them, plus some available for purchase.
Wine flights are also great because you let people try a few. In my observation, most people will get a flight and then choose a second glass from one of the tasting pours.
My local wine bar/ bottle shop does a “fancy Friday” where they open a cool bottle of burg/barolo/cab franc. That typically gets me in and some other nerds in there.
Good selection BTG (15 is probably plenty provided they’re well-curated – my local favourite generally has 5 red, 5 white, 1 fizz, 1 orange, 1 rose and 1 sweet at any given time, and that works well for me)
Food – doesn’t need to be hot, doesn’t need to be a massive selection, but does need at least a couple of options that work as a meal – say a charcuterie plate and a cheese plate, served with some nice bread.
Friendly, knowledgeable staff
Date-friendly ambience. Doesn’t need to be treacly or laid on thick, does need to be compatible with an intimate tete-a-tete. No loud music, no sports on TV, don’t have the lights up too high (especially if they’re all on the ceiling), put a few candles out.
A small selection of good non-wine booze. Craft beers by the can, one or two nice brands each of gin, vodka, whisky, appropriate mixers.
Having worked at some very successful wine bars/restaurants the most important things are:
1. Good staff who are personable and have tried the wines (make them taste every btg wine and regularly open bottles for staff if you want those sold as well)
2. Good btg list. This is less about variety and more about having something to please different customer preferences ie. cheap sparkler, rose, something fruity, big cab bs, probably at least one orange wine for young folks, etc.
in order:
1. btg selection and diversity
2. activities and events (personally, wouldn’t put ambience in this category)
3. small expensive btg/btb list (invest in a coravin system)
4. food specials
5. ambience
I prefer a large rotating BTG selection, and a willingness to open a bottle not on that list and sell the rest BTG to others.
Honestly, my favorite wine bars have the WineStation dispensers that pour 1oz, half glass, and full glass pours for ~25-50 bottles, like The Matheson in Healdsburg. It lets me try things I otherwise don’t have the pockets to buy a bottle of, and then get a full glass of something that blew my mind. That’s how you get wine nerds coming back.
I would let people try things! It makes them feel like they’re learning and also not just spending money on wine they could have at home.
I prefer a more extensive bottle list vs. a larger BTG. I go to wine bars to taste bottles I can’t buy from retail.
Being popular among subscribers of r/wine will probably make you go bust immediately. People will tell you what they like and what they wish they could have and do, not what they are willing to pay for.
The wine bars I’m most interested in are the ones that serve a coravin pour of expensive/rare bottles that I otherwise would never buy for myself. There’s a few wine bars that do that in nyc such as bibliotheque that I think are really unique. That’s just me tho, I’m not interested in going to a wine bar and paying huge markups on easily available low to mid-priced wines.
Offer me interesting options, properly aged at decent prices and in appropriate stemware.. that is almost impossible to find. Care very little about the rest.
Since you are in Virginia, I want to see local wines! I’m up in NoVa and I appreciate wine bars that carry local wines. I can have international wines anywhere, I can’t find Virginia wines everywhere outside of this region.
A thoughtful menu that’s not just cheese, olives or charcuterie (this actually encourages people to stay awhile and spend more). A rotating wine of the day to convince people to try something new. A fun, welcoming and approachable atmosphere.
Curiously, French speaking countries do an excellent job nailing this down compared to the US. Some of the best dining experiences I’ve had were in wine bars in Montreal, Lyon, Toulouse and even rural Quebec, because of how passionate, fun and welcoming the bar owners are. New York wine bars could never.
From someone in the distribution side… For the love of all that is holy, please pay attention to what your local market and consumers want. Not just the internet, what you like and trends. If you go full esoteric, old world, natural wine, “nothing in grocery stores”; you’re going to likely alienate half the potential clientele. Unless you’re in LA, Manhattan or similar… You don’t need to pour Meiomi but moderation and a mix of styles for all palates is usually key unless you’re hand selling every bottle.
My favorite wine store does special event tastings/lessons, and I would imagine you could make this work at a wine bar. Topics could be regional, varietal, novelty.
Pinot Noir to be at 55-60 degrees not warm as fuck. Its so frustrating when you’re gonna charge me $18 for a class of Pinot, for it to be served warm…And then don’t look at me like I’m the weirdo when I ask if you have a bottle in the cooler. And don’t do stingy pours.
Also, a really good acoustic guitar and vocalist doing live music is a great vibe.
I thought it was in the Charlottesville subreddit for a second! I visited a few months ago and I really liked the bartenders choice flight and my husband enjoyed his BTG pick. I thought the list was thoughtful and diverse but I don’t recall seeing a ton of local offerings on it so maybe there’s opportunity to expand there?