Southern Charmers Wine Dinner

How has this idea enhanced your club's operation, etc.?

Our Wine Committee holds an annual spring cocktail station and wine tasting event with a theme of there choosing. The April 2020, and subsequently April 2021, theme was “Southern Charmers,” and the concept was to feature wines from the southern regions of all the major wine producing countries. Due to COVID concerns, the committee decided the traditional cocktail stations would not be conducive for safety reasons. After executing a successful multiple plate and ample wine dinner, we have since learned the capabilities of our team and operations. We have learned to think differently in terms of our annual events and find new ways to present and enhance existing events.

How was this idea implemented, and what have been the club members' reactions?

The operations team pivoted to a seated event keeping the menu that Chef had created and the 18 wines the committee already selected. This stretched the team as we served six courses, with each course including one to three tapas style items, served with a wine flight pairing. This style of service for 65 members pushed our operations team outside of our comfort zone. We rented over 1,000 wine glasses and a variety of plates. The success of the event has shown us we are capable of growing our boundaries, our more traditional membership is receptive to trying new service styles, and our team is able to experiment with the status quo to create new experiences. The members have continued to praise us for the efforts we made to keep their event moving forward and make the answer yes.