Wasted wines

Abstract

This paper reports on a management project, a fourth-year research project at Stenden Hotel Management School, dedicated to reducing wine waste at Landgoedhotel de Wilmersberg in De Lutte (the Netherlands). To do this, the beverage cost percentages were explored for wines that can be ordered per glass, and what the most important causes of wine waste were, followed by an evaluation of possibilities to lower this percentage. During a period of three months, all the wines sold per glass, the wines that were thrown away, and the stock were recorded to be able to determine the wines wasted. Besides that, an interview with six employees was conducted to gather their opinions about the current wine serving procedures and the wine waste that was occurring. The outcomes of the research show that many wines are opened and thrown away after a couple of days because the quality had decreased. All in all, this is an enormous amount of waste. To reduce this amount of waste it is important that every employee is aware and involved with the waste reduction process. Furthermore, it is recommended to look critically at the assortment and to reduce the amount of wine that is served per glass. Finally, different wine systems are noted which can be worth investigation. Wine systems can decrease the amount of wine waste and lead to a more sustainable restaurant.

Keywords: wine wastage, wine quality, waste reduction, wine systems