End of the month inventory (A peek inside the glamorous world of a Wine Buyer)

The Back Label

As the end of the month looms, I find myself checking the calendar to find out what day of the week dreaded inventory will fall upon.  Will it interfere with a scheduled day off?  Will the long hours of a busy day at the restaurant only be extended by hours spent counting bottles of wine?  I’ve spent many a New Year’s Day nursing a hangover and counting wine in a quiet restaurant while my fellow coworkers are resting comfortably in their beds.

 Inventory is a fact of life in the restaurant business.  Putting your hands on every bottle and getting a true count is the only way to make sure your costs are where they should be. The Herbsaint wine inventory is by far the largest and most complicated of our restaurants.  There are the wines on the list. There is deep storage with wines we are aging for release later.  There are library wines that are the last bottle or two of a vintage that we are keeping to try at their peak.  There are the freebies, the samples we forgot to try and the corked bottles from the previous month.  At the end of July we had 10 different Chambolle-Musignys from different vineyards, vintages and producers and each need to be differentiated between and accurately counted.

I have a bit of OCD when it comes to mowing my lawn and counting the wine; I do it the same way every time and even a minor deviation causes my stress level to rise.  First, I count the closet which we converted to a temperature controlled storage area over a year ago.  Then it is off to the bar to count the reach in cooler and the wines by the glass.  Then it’s back to the walk in were the bulk of the white wines are stored.  I pull everything out at once and start with the Champagnes.  I love counting Champagne and once the numbers are done they go back into the cooler.  After the Champagnes, the white Burgundies are sorted by village, counted and put back into their containers with some sort of organization.  The roses, other whites and dessert wines follow suit.

The Vinotheque, which is a temperature-controlled wine cooler for storing some of the red wine, is next.  It stores the wines double deep so every wine in front must be pulled to make sure the wine behind it is the same.  I count, reconfigure and double check before I move on to the office and the last of the wines.  After I’ve finished all of my counts I look at my sheets and see if certain things need to be restocked.  During a busy shift a Sauvignon Blanc stored at the bar might not have been replaced and we like to keep a few of everything cold in case multiple bottles are needed at the same time.  Things get 86’d (taken off the list) and inventory is our chance to find a bottle hidden here or there so that it can be put back on the list.

The facility that Herbsaint occupies wasn’t designed to house such a busy restaurant and we have to make do with the space we are in.  Besides counting the white wines that are stored in the walk in refrigerator, I find myself wiping duck fat off a bottle that got in the way of a spill.  A hastily pulled bottle from the Vinotheque might have a ripped label that can be fixed so as to be presentable for a guest.  With all the linen napkins we go through, dust is an issue and cooling units need to have their filters cleaned and free of lint.  Inventory can be a dirty job so a t-shirt replaces my standard Manager garb.  After everything is done all I want is a glass of wine.  But at 10:30 in the morning I usually settle for an iced coffee.  After all, I’ve got a reputation to uphold.  Back Label Out!

Comments (1)

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written by chief, September 01, 2009

while this sounds like a terrible struggle, you might want to mention how great Wednesday afternoons are! Isn't that the day you get to sit with wine sellers and taste most of the afternoon?

I know, it's a tough job but someone has to do it!

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