By Diane, Wine Services
In wine and Champagne, the accuracy and freshness of your information decide the quality of your decisions. At Wine Services, we've turned data collection into a craft - with methods tuned to each market. Here's how it works.
Identifying and selecting the right establishments
It starts with finding the restaurants and wine shops that fit our clients' criteria - a precise, continuously enriched methodology built on trusted sources.
We refresh our panel using recognized references like the Michelin Guide, Wine Spectator, and World's 50 Best, plus specialist sources such as Falstaff (especially relevant in Asia). We scout prestige venues through titles like Condé Nast Traveler and Vogue. For specific markets like the U.S., we go deeper, mining the portfolios of leading importers. Finally, we comb LinkedIn and Instagram for influencers and sommeliers, and use Google Maps to refine the geography. Once the list is built, a fine-wine importer reviews it to confirm we haven't missed a key account.
How we collect the data
Collection is a hybrid process - advanced tooling paired with careful human oversight - which is what keeps accuracy high. It begins with gathering wine lists:
- Digital retrieval - when lists are online, complete, and current, our team extracts the data automatically with OCR, capturing names, vintages, and listed prices.
- Email - when they aren't, we reach out directly, using market-specific personas to get what we need.
- Phone - we often back up email with a call to secure the list.
- On-site visits - for tougher markets (notably China and France), our in-house team, local ambassadors, or collection partners retrieve what's missing in person.
Together, these approaches deliver exhaustive, reliable coverage of each target market.
The tech behind the process
We keep building tools that make collection faster and sharper. One internal system reads online wine lists automatically and flags key signals - average price, awards (Michelin stars, Wine Spectator), and overall list quality - speeding our updates without sacrificing reliability.
The challenges of collecting data worldwide
Every market brings its own hurdles - and we collect over 10 million lines of data a year from 15,000 points of sale. Asia and the Middle East pose specific difficulties: language, culture, limited online information. We clear them with local contacts and on-site partners who validate data and keep it current. Japan is complex for cultural and communication reasons; in China, most venues lack websites or email, so we lean on local search engines and direct, on-the-ground contact.
A collection process built for your success
Want to see how Wine Services can help your brand gain ground in prestige markets? Reach out for a tailored analysis.