Tell us about Omni Hotels. How many properties participate in your food & beverage programs? Are all of your hotels in the United States? What is your anticipated growth over the next five years?
We have 40 hotels, and all, except the three franchised hotels, participate in our F&B programs. All our hotels are in the United States except for our hotel in Montreal and two franchised properties in Cancun.

Tell us how you go about developing your core wine list program and which wineries or importers you have found to be the most helpful.What about banquet wines?
We have a core list that is reviewed every 18 months. We have a partnership with WineQuest to issue a call for submissions to all wineries that show interest in participating. Each winery must present wines that meet the requirements sent on the call for submissions—right varietal, price point, etc.

Omni Hotels is famous for your “Flavors” wine promotions. Please explain these programs, and give us examples of your most successful ones and the properties that did the most creative promotions.
“Flavors of the World” program is something I created four years ago to accomplish three things:
1. Provide our guests with new and creative cuisines and wines from around the world.
2. Create educational opportunities for our chefs and F&B directors through educational trips to the featured country where chefs go through culinary training with leading local chefs, visit producers of various agricultural products as well as vineyards, cheese producers, etc. The knowledge gathered is translated into a powerful tool used to train the entire F&B staff back at their respective hotels, so they in turn can offer our guests a much better dining experience.
3. Create another vehicle to increase average checks through increased wine sales and promotional menus.

What do you do about wine preservation?
This is left to each hotel, but they all must meet the minimum standard and that is to ensure the freshness of the wine being served by the glass. Some of our hotels use La Verre de Vin, which I find very effective in preserving the freshness of the wine. Other hotels use a VacuVin to accomplish the same.

How do you ensure that every property receives the same quality of wine training and the same message? How often is your training repeated and what corporate controls are in place to monitor it?
We have partnered with WineQuest, and we develop quarterly training modules. All F&B associates, from servers to managers, must go through the training and pass a proficiency test. The training goes from the ABC’s of wine to specific training modules on wine service, salesmanship, and others on specific viticultural areas such as Spain, Chile, and the United States.

What do you see as being the most important wine trends for the on-premise hotels arena for 2007 and beyond?
New varietals will be the hot wine trend. Spanish wines in particular are hotter than ever, especially varietals such as Mencía, Godello, Malvasía, Viura, Albariño, and Tempranillo. The wines from Argentina, especially Malbec, will also get more popular with consumers and will be seen more and more in wine lists.

What are you doing to prepare for an even more successful 2007, wine wise?
Education is the backbone to better wine sales. An educated server sells twice as much wine as a server who knows nothing or very little about it. Knowledge is power, and, therefore, we continue to invest in education. I take F&B directors and chefs to a different country every year so they can learn that country’s food and wines and come back and train their respective staff. We continue to work with WineQuest developing Omnispecific training and wine education so we can offer our guests better service.

What do you feel is your greatest achievement in terms of your wine program since you became the leader of the F&B team at Omni?
My greatest achievement, in terms of wine, is the educational opportunities I have been able to provide to associates. Omni Hotels firmly believes in the importance of F&B in the overall success of our hotels and has supported my ideas and educational projects, such as the educational trips to different countries and the investment made in partnering with WineQuest to provide a web-based training tool for all associates. Sales have grown exponentially, so that is proof that education has paid off.

What is your strategy over the next five years and beyond to take your wine program to even greater heights in terms of customer satisfaction and profitability?
Always look for next hot trend. We have to keep up with customer demands and newfound wine savvy. We have to continue to offer new varietals that are exciting and food friendly and provide all these wines at reasonable prices.

What are your favorite wines and why?
Pinot Noir is definitely my favorite varietal, and I have been a Pinot Noir fanatic since 1980 when I had the unique opportunity to participate in a vertical tasting of over 30 vintages of Domaine de la Romanee Conti. It was a sublime experience and one that definitely shaped my thinking of what a wine should taste like. My favorite Pinot? Henry Jayer wines from Burgundy. He was the master of Burgundy, and his wines are as perfect as a wine can be.

Fred Tibbitts & Associates Inc. is a leading global wine-by-the-glass consultant, working with on-premise chains around the world. Contact him at fredbev@fredtibbitts.com.