IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jbusin/v5y2025i2p24-d1669421.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Enhancing Restaurant Profits via Strategic Wine Sales

Author

Listed:
  • Scott Sheridan

    (Elantic International LLC, Amherst, MA 01002, USA)

  • Marc Dressler

    (Department of Marketing and Human Resources Management, Viticulture & Oenology Management & Entrepreneurship, University of Ludwigshafen, Weincampus, D-67059 Ludwigshafen, Germany)

Abstract

The restaurant industry, especially fine dining, is characterized by intense competition and an increasing number of closures. Wine is a profit lever, but the exploitation of sales potential can present a challenge. As consumers encounter more extensive wine lists, they often find themselves overwhelmed. A restaurant experiment in Stuttgart, Germany, examined strategies to simplify decision-making for customers and their impact on wine purchases and the dining experience. This experiment, conducted at a small fine-dining establishment, aimed to understand how wine descriptions and pairing recommendations influence customer choices and behavior, revealing key insights that wineries and restaurants can leverage to boost wine sales. The findings underscore the power of wine descriptions and strategic pairing recommendations in enhancing customer engagement. They suggest that restaurants can increase their wine sales by integrating well-crafted wine descriptions into menus, while wineries can benefit by providing comprehensive tasting notes and pairing suggestions that align with restaurant offerings. For both sectors, understanding the sensory and psychological factors that shape wine appreciation can offer a competitive edge.

Suggested Citation

  • Scott Sheridan & Marc Dressler, 2025. "Enhancing Restaurant Profits via Strategic Wine Sales," Businesses, MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jbusin:v:5:y:2025:i:2:p:24-:d:1669421
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7116/5/2/24/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-7116/5/2/24/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Kosfeld & Markus Heinrichs & Paul J. Zak & Urs Fischbacher & Ernst Fehr, 2005. "Oxytocin increases trust in humans," Nature, Nature, vol. 435(7042), pages 673-676, June.
    2. Adrian C. North & David J. Hargreaves & Jennifer McKendrick, 1997. "In-store music affects product choice," Nature, Nature, vol. 390(6656), pages 132-132, November.
    3. Sogari, Giovanni & Menozzi, Davide & Mora, Cristina, 2018. "Sensory-liking Expectations and Perceptions of Processed and Unprocessed Insect Products," International Journal on Food System Dynamics, International Center for Management, Communication, and Research, vol. 9(4), August.
    4. Livat, Florine & Remaud, Hervé, 2018. "Factors Affecting Wine Price Mark-up in Restaurants," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(2), pages 144-159, May.
    5. Ashton, Robert H., 2011. "Improving Experts' Wine Quality Judgments: Two Heads Are Better than One," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 160-178, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anne Corcos & François Pannequin & Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde, 2012. "Aversions to Trust," Recherches économiques de Louvain, De Boeck Université, vol. 78(3), pages 115-134.
    2. Jason Aimone & Sheryl Ball & Brooks King-Casas, 2015. "The Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task: An Individual Level Betrayal Aversion Measure," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-12, September.
    3. Friedel Bolle & Jessica Kaehler, 2006. "Coleman's Hypothesis on trusting behaviour and a remark on meta-studies," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 469-483.
    4. Giuseppe Attanasi & Pierpaolo Battigalli & Elena Manzoni, 2016. "Incomplete-Information Models of Guilt Aversion in the Trust Game," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(3), pages 648-667, March.
    5. Kimbrough, E.O. & Vostroknutov, A., 2012. "Rules, rule-following and cooperation," Research Memorandum 053, Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR).
    6. Giovanni Bartolomeo & Stefano Papa, 2016. "Does collective meditation foster trust and trustworthiness in an investment game?," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 63(4), pages 379-392, December.
    7. Alexandre Truc, 2023. "Neuroeconomics: Hype or Hope? An Answer," Post-Print hal-04719266, HAL.
    8. Pozharliev, Rumen & De Angelis, Matteo & Rossi, Dario & Bagozzi, Richard & Amatulli, Cesare, 2023. "I might try it: Marketing actions to reduce consumer disgust toward insect-based food," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 149-167.
    9. Qiulu Shou & Junko Yamada & Kuniyuki Nishina & Masahiro Matsunaga & Toko Kiyonari & Haruto Takagishi, 2022. "Is oxytocin a trust hormone? Salivary oxytocin is associated with caution but not with general trust," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(5), pages 1-11, May.
    10. Roth, Felix & Gros, Daniel & Nowak-Lehmann D., Felicitas, 2012. "Has the financial crisis eroded citizens' trust in the European Central Bank? Panel data evidence for the Euro area, 1999-2011," University of Göttingen Working Papers in Economics 124, University of Goettingen, Department of Economics.
    11. Ariel Knafo & Salomon Israel & Ariel Darvasi & Rachel Bachner-Melman & Florina Uzefovsky & Lior Cohen & Esti Feldman & Elad Lerer & Efrat Laiba & Yael Raz & Lubov Nemanov & Inga Gritsenko & Christian , 2007. "Individual Differences in Allocation of Funds in the Dictator Game Associated with Length of the Arginine Vasopressin 1a Receptor (AVPR1a) RS3 Promoter-region and Correlation between RS3 Length and Hi," Discussion Paper Series dp457, The Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
    12. Ernst Fehr, 2009. "On The Economics and Biology of Trust," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 235-266, 04-05.
    13. Koch, Christian, 2013. "The Virtue Ethics Hypothesis: Is there a nexus between virtues and well-being?," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 80054, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    14. Joanna Bartkowicz & Ewa Babicz-Zielińska, 2020. "Acceptance of bars with edible insects by a selected group of students from Tri-City, Poland," Czech Journal of Food Sciences, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 38(3), pages 192-197.
    15. Arthur Blouin & Sharun W. Mukand & Sharun Mukand, 2022. "Mistaking Noise for Bias - Victimhood and Hutu-Tutsi Reconciliation in East Africa," CESifo Working Paper Series 9854, CESifo.
    16. Daniel Houser & Daniel Schunk & Joachim Winter, 2006. "Trust Games Measure Trust," MEA discussion paper series 06112, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    17. Pearson, Matthew & Schipper, Burkhard C., 2013. "Menstrual cycle and competitive bidding," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 1-20.
    18. Tamara Niella & Nicolás Stier-Moses & Mariano Sigman, 2016. "Nudging Cooperation in a Crowd Experiment," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(1), pages 1-20, January.
    19. List, John A. & Samak, Anya C., 2013. "Exploring the origins of charitable acts: Evidence from an artefactual field experiment with young children," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 431-434.
    20. Hopfensitz, Astrid & Wranik, Tanja, 2008. "Psychological and environmental determinants of myopic loss aversion," MPRA Paper 9305, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jbusin:v:5:y:2025:i:2:p:24-:d:1669421. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.