The festive period offers greater upsell and sales opportunities for wine, but it's certainly not the time to reinvent your wine range. One possible solution is to offer your customers a guest wine over the Christmas period. But where do you start? Our range contains over 1,400 wines, so selecting a single guest wine can seem daunting.

The first step can be narrow down the number of wines you're selecting from. Red wines gain share over the festive period, while over a quarter of yearly Fortified and Champagne volumes are normally traded over November and December. France is by far the favourite for consumers looking to buy for those special occasions. France is 43% more popular for red special occasions than red ‘everyday’ occasions. With customers willing to spend more at Christmas adding a premium French guest wine could well pay off.

The most important thing to consider is which wines will appeal to the outlet’s customers; recognising the needs of different wine drinkers. Consider the popularity of the countries. France, Italy and Australia are at the top of the list; the USA, Chile and South Africa come next; followed by Spain, Argentina and New Zealand. Using this advice, dependant on what would fit your outlet, consider a premium French red, a Champagne or a Port. Of course, if a premium French wine doesn’t fit your outlet consider the next most popular country and so on.

A guest wine should be interesting, something that you wouldn’t expect to find on most lists. Consider wines made from interesting grapes, for example, instead of Pinot Noir, try a Gamay. Instead of Cabernet Sauvignon, try a Malbec. Instead of Syrah, try a Mourvèdre. An unusually packaged French red, we think that La Java des Grandes Espérances Gamay-Malbec, Touraine really fits the bill. Although when only Champagne will do, Taittinger Nocturne Sec offers something different Brut with a dosage of 20 g/l of sugar added, this compares to around 10 g/l for their Brut wine. The effect is to make the wine seem richer without it being as sweet as a demi-sec which would have about 35 g/l of sugar added to the final wine.

Whatever you decide on, a ‘wine of the month’ or similar helps to keep the overall wine offering exciting and seasonally relevant. 46% of consumers enjoy trying new styles on a regular basis and a guest wine is a superb way of discovering what your customer’s love, even if they don’t know it themselves yet! If not for Christmas, consider getting ready for January with some interesting guest wines. Our Design team is on hand to assist you with bespoke QR code POS to help you maximise your sales with a digital wine list.