Wine Drop is on a mission to make more people drink wine. Their strategy? Make it more fun
“We have a big crisis in wine globally. There’s too much wine, and people are drinking less.”
When we met with Wine Drop’s managing director Jean-Philippe Guillot, he dropped this sobering yet unfortunately long-standing fact. There has been a downward trend in wine consumption globally since 2018, and the most recent estimate by the International Organization of Vine and Wine noted that 2023 consumption was the lowest volume they’ve recorded since 1996.
Despite the decreased demand in European and Western wine-drinking countries (and even China), it’s surprising to see that the wine market is actually growing in the Philippines.
In 2022, the country was noted to be one of the “most exciting wine markets,” thanks to the continued increase in wine consumption here. However, there’s still much work to be done.
For wine distributors like AWC, of which Wine Drop is under, tickling Filipinos’ taste buds for wine is proving to be a reliable strategy.
Wine Drop is AWC’s retail component, providing spaces for consumers to directly purchase, drink, and even learn more about the wines they carry.
Since 2014, AWC has been known for supplying quality wine to some of the country’s top hotels, resorts, and restaurants, such as the Shangri-la group, Grand Hyatt, Fairmont, Raffles, Dusit Thani as well as Solaire and Okada.
“Wine was not really in the culture of the Philippines, so a lot of restaurants didn’t really have a wine list. A lot of Filipinos are also traveling the world, and of course they get into wine more. So our first mission was really to bring good quality wine from around the globe and help restaurants build their wine list,” Guillot says.
But after years of showcasing their wines at partner restaurants and online resellers, the group realized the need for a platform or space where customers could buy bottles directly. “It was a bit frustrating that there’s no shop to showcase our wine for people. If they enjoyed [the] wine in a restaurant, they don’t really know where to buy it for their home. So that was our first motivation, to have a place where people can find all the wine.”
The pandemic also played a major role in AWC’s decision to establish Wine Drop. “Because most of our customers were hotels and restaurants and they were all closed during COVID, we had a lot of stock of wine,” Guillot says. Thus their website winedrop.life was created.
Soon after, Wine Drop ventured into putting up a physical space in Greenhills. Guillot describes the neighborhood as one that is “dynamic… with people who love F&B.”
After a year in Greenhills, Wine Drop ventured into a second location, this time in Makati, along the strip of warehouses at Chino Roces Extension. The decision to open here came with two-fold benefits: As primarily a wine importer, having both a shop and a warehouse space was crucial. The warehouse, which they keep cold at a controlled temperature of 16 to 17 degrees every day, ensures that the wine they carry will maintain its quality.
“Wine is a product that’s still alive,” Guillot says. “If you don’t take care of it, it will turn into vinegar. That’s not what it’s supposed to be.”
Filipinos and wine
While the Philippines is still not a major wine market, it is showing great promise especially in recent years. Guillot attributes this to the rapidly changing F&B landscape in the country.
“Filipinos usually eat and then drink after. In France, you eat and drink at the same time. It’s two different cultures. But when you look at these new fantastic restaurants opening with a new chef generation, when you look at all these new sommeliers or bartenders who have worked abroad and are coming back to the Philippines, they bring what they learned abroad. That’s what makes Manila unique, I think, and very impressive in terms of new concepts,” Guillot says.
“This new generation of Filipinos are so passionate about wine,” he says. “I know a lot of them, and their passion is wine, to taste wine. I think you have this big dynamic market where people enjoy going out and drinking good stuff as well.”
With this growing interest in wine, Wine Drop’s mission is to further cultivate that interest.
“Wine could sound intimidating for some people. Not everyone’s going to go to a five-star hotel [to drink wine], and when you open the wine list, it’s very hard to choose,” Guillot says. “At Wine Drop, we wanted to have a nice place that’s engaging and easy to come in. The idea of Wine Drop is really to make a wine shop that is accessible.”
At the Makati shop, the wines are classified by taste profile, instead of price or country of origin. Their featured wines come in a wide range of prices, the cheapest bottles falling below P1,000, with the most expensive ones priced at around P20,000. But with taste as the priority at Wine Drop, customers can browse the shelves themselves, ranging from light, medium, and heavy reds to light and crisp and even acidic whites.
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All members of Wine Drop’s shop staff are also knowledgeable about wines, happily providing recommendations based on customer preferences.
Guillot himself is very hands-on, having sourced nearly 80 percent of their wine selection. Being born in a winemaking family, Guillot has long been connected to winemakers from various countries. At Wine Drop, he shares, the goal is to really push for the wines by family-owned wine companies, especially the ones he personally can vouch for.
“I like to work with friends and it’s easier for me to sell it to you or to the F&B director and say, this [wine is by] my friend. When I look at all the labels, I know all the winemakers, and I’m very happy to be the messenger for them.”
In the store, Wine Drop has also partnered with chefs whose dishes and products make up the shop’s concise menu. “We’re not a bar or a restaurant,” Guillot emphasizes. What started as a basic platter of cold cuts and cheese to simply accompany the wines being showcased eventually grew. “It’s not enough. When people come here, they want to taste the wine, [so] they need food. If you drink without eating, you know what’s going to happen,” Guillot laughs.
French masterchef Cyrille Soenen helped develop the les plats canaille menu for Wine Drop. Les plats canaille, Guillot explains, are French dishes meant to be shared at the table. “You put it in a big pot, a bit like when you’re with your family and friends, and you put it in the middle and share.”
From Soenen’s CiCou are appetizers like chicken liver and pork head pâté, beetroot salmon gravlax, quiche, and a light but delectable fougasse pissaladière. Hot dishes like beef bourguignon, chicken confit, and cassoulet as well as desserts like kouign-amann and chocolate moelleux are also available.
Meanwhile, Spanish chef Chele Gonzalez stocks Wine Drop with deli favorites like the New York style beef brisket pastrami and grilled octopus a la Gallega. Blackpig supplies the shop with eight-inch pizzas alongside tapas by Txanton. Amid global fare, an assortment of cheese by local farm Malagos can also be enjoyed with cold cuts.
“The Philippines is making fantastic cheese. Even as a Frenchman, I’m so happy and proud we’re putting Philippine cheese on our selection,” Guillot says.
In crafting the menu, Guillot emphasizes the meals’ shareability and pairing with wine.
Wine pairing is one of Wine Drop’s primary campaigns, both on social media and in their events. On Instagram, a number of videos highlight different wines paired with various dishes and cuisines. Their events and collaborations also emphasize how wine can be paired with a variety of dishes, from pizza to oysters.
Making wine approachable
“The idea of Wine Drop is to make it fun as well. I really want to make wine fun and more accessible in terms of price and in terms of knowledge for everyone,” Guillot says. “It’s very important that we are able to teach but in a fun way.”
True to this mission, Wine Drop regularly holds Wine 101 sessions, and even wine game nights, where guests can learn trivia about wine all while enjoying glasses themselves.
Among the shelves bearing various wines are books and even board games all about winemaking and drinking. An impressive red box, for example, opens up to dozens of vials, each one representing a key ingredient or scent profile you’d likely find in a variety of wines. The board game helps train the nose to pick up the various notes.
While Wine Drop organizes regular wine communes and trivia nights, guests can also enjoy a short, impromptu Wine 101 session at the shop. Everyone’s a wine expert in the shop, Guillot says, so it’s definitely easy to simply ask to know more about the wine you’re drinking.
And when it comes down to it, Guillot recommends really just drinking more to develop one’s taste for wine. “It’s basic, but drink more wine. When you drink, always look at the label and try to get three main pieces of information: the country, the region, and the grape varietal. And when you drink, put a note on your phone, and if you come [to us] with a list of wines you like and don’t like, we can tell you what you should get.”
“And come to Wine Drop, go for dinner with six friends. Let’s do a Wine 101. For 30 minutes, you learn, and after, you have a great evening here. So at least, you get drunk, but you get smarter.”