2.4 General Controls for Safety and Risk Management

HEALTH SAFETY BASICS FOR WINERY TASTINGS

Planning and communication are key success factors to ensure the health and wellbeing of guests and staff members. At all times, wineries must adopt sanitary practices for tastings and stay up-to-date on current recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov/), the NC Department of Health and Human Services (https://www.ncdhhs.gov/), and the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services (http://www.ncagr.gov/). Employees should be trained in the most current disease prevention strategies as well as meet government and winery standards for wellness screenings. They should be fully aware of steps to take in the case of positive signs of infection or exposure to any known health hazards.

Generally, wineries have increased the frequency of cleaning and sanitizing all high contact surfaces. Areas that see high traffic or frequent touching, like doors, light switches, tables, chairs, cart and basket handles, electronics, handrails, and bathrooms, must be cleaned and sanitized throughout the day, ideally between each customer group. Increasingly, hand washing stations (soap, water, single-use towels) or hand sanitizer (minimum 60% ethanol or 70% isopropyl) are provided for customers as they enter the tasting room and as they leave. An additional tactic to avoid cross-contamination is to separate staff duties based on physical region of the winery, so that different, nonoverlapping, sets of employees handle tasting area activities, retail customer management, and cashier/payment processing. 

Your winery should post signs regarding policies in place to protect staff and guest health safety. Some topics appearing in signage include who can enter, use of face coverings and hand sanitation, physical distance policies, the maximum group size allowed, traffic flow patterns, and other relevant information, including reminding guests to comply with safety requirements set by winery and tasting area employees. Additional reminders can be delivered orally by staff during various phases of the customer visit as well as provided on information sheets provided to each guest. 

ALCOHOL SAFETY INFORMATION

Tasting rooms are subject to state laws regulating alcohol dispensing and sales establishments. All persons who work with alcohol sales and service must have a good understanding of the alcohol laws in their state and the legal obligations of servers. While this course is focused on customer service and hospitality, your winery will certainly instruct you in basic requirements and expectations for handling alcohol. The information that follows below does not substitute for proper training provided by your winery or the state and is not intended to be legal advice.

The wine that you will provide to guests during the tasting in most cases is categorized as "unfortified wine," although some wineries are adding fortified wines that have higher alcohol content. By legal definition, unfortified refers to “any wine of sixteen percent (16%) or less alcohol by volume that is made by fermentation from grapes, fruits, berries, rice, or honey … and produced in accordance with the regulations of the United States.” According to the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, “tastings are legal when the retail permittee holds the appropriate on-premises winery permits; a special event permit may also be required if [the tasting is to be] held off the premises.”

A wine tasting consists of the offering of a sample of one or more wine products, ideally in amounts of no more than one ounce for each sample, to reduce liability of the winery and its staff. The following video clip serves as a visual reminder to keep portions small.

Any person pouring wine at a wine tasting shall be at least 21 years of age. Keep an eye on the wine bottles at all times; no guest should have reason or opportunity to serve himself.

One of the important mandates to understand when you serve alcohol is that the law requires you to refuse alcohol to anyone you believe to be underage (21 years old in North Carolina). You are allowed to ask for proper identification from any individual whom you deem to be underage. Required ID in North Carolina comprises the following four documents: a state-issued driver’s license, a North Carolina-issued Special Identification Card, a federal government-issued passport, or a military ID card.

You also must deny service to someone who seems drunk or otherwise impaired by alcohol. The more common signs of intoxication are slurred speech, glassy eyes, swaying or staggering movements, fumbling of items, and loud and obnoxious behavior. These behaviors can occur because guests have already consumed alcohol prior to arriving at your winery. It is your role, however, to avoid contributing further to their intoxicated state.

If your winery is the last place someone visits, before causing an accident or worse due to being intoxicated, you and your operation can be held accountable and potentially sued for unlawful or irresponsible service of alcoholic beverages or related negligence.  If you believe a visitor is impaired, do not serve any additional alcohol to the person; try to do so without embarrassing the individual if at all possible. Make sure you alert other tasting room staff about possibly intoxicated guests, and if necessary, contact a supervisor or authority to handle the situation.

ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND MANAGEMENT

You need to constantly survey countertops, tables, and floors for any spills or broken glassware. These are the most common situations that cause accidents in a tasting room setting. Spills and broken glass should be cleaned up immediately to maintain a safe facility for both guests and staff.

Chipped, cracked, or broken glassware must be placed in specific containers labeled “Broken Glass.” Cut-resistant gloves or similar protections should be worn when picking up pieces of broken glass by hand. In addition, broken glass on the floor represents a significant safety hazard until cleaned up and disposed of in the proper receptacle. The area around the glass should be secured, then swept and otherwise cleaned thoroughly as small shards can remain undetected. Do not throw any type of glassware into plastic trash bags; the glass can cut through and cause harm to people carrying out the trash or can cause other contents of the garbage bag to fall out.

The floor area in the tasting room and in other drinking spaces must be maintained in good condition and repair. The layout of your tasting room should be inspected also for any danger areas where people might slip or trip or bump their arms, causing them to spill wine or drop a glass onto the floor. If left unattended, spilled wine will seep into cracks creating odors later on; spills can cause people to slip or lose their footing on the wet surface as well. You should have basic cleaning supplies on hand to be able to handle spills as soon as possible.

WEATHER MANAGEMENT AND OTHER CRISIS PROCEDURES

Nothing is as unpredictable as the weather. Nevertheless, most retail and hospitality businesses try to set some formal guidelines for handling severe weather and similar crisis situations that may arise in their particular geographical regions.  You should familiarize yourself with any emergency or evacuation plans developed by your winery management. You must be prepared to assist and support your winery visitors and coworkers in every way possible.

Some of the important things to think about when considering emergency planning are the types of local weather risks that might be common in your area. In the mountains, this may be snow and ice, while in the coastal areas, you may be more concerned with hurricanes and flooding.

Emergency planning requires thinking through:

• • Who will be the primary decision makers during a crisis?

  • How will people on property be notified about oncoming risks?

  • How will people communicate in the absence of telephone or internet service?

  • Where should people congregate in the case of approaching physical threats, e.g., tornadoes, flooding parking lots or roads?

  • Who among you has first-aid skill sets and where will first-aid materials be stored?

  • What supplies need to be acquired, stored, and maintained, e.g., water, candles, generators, sump pumps?

  • What evacuation route and local community shelters pertain to your facility?

  • Other actions that follow best practice emergency situations for specific crisis situations 

EXTERNAL ISSUES AND APPEARANCE

The visitor’s first (and often lasting) opinion of your winery starts with good parking, clear signage, and clean and attractive facilities and grounds that invite them to stay and enter the winery. A well-maintained exterior of the building is a signal of the winery’s commitment to high standards within the tasting room. Beyond keeping this outside area swept and clean, consider the condition of shrubs and hanging plants or outside seating and railings. Be mindful of needed repairs and keep things looking fresh and well-tended.

A winery usually offers convenient guest parking as well as identifying special areas for deliveries and collections of merchandise and equipment. It is important to have someone test the usefulness of the road and parking signs you put out leading to your winery. Are your signs in the right places along the road or driveway? Do your signs have good visibility? Are the letters big enough for the average moderate-sighted individual to read while driving by? In addition, you need to keep track of parking issues that occur as the day progresses and try to anticipate the level of crowds on event days and special holidays. Some wineries will have parking greeters and a shuttle service to minimize the stress on visitors on busy days.

Wineries often take advantage of outdoor scenery and offer seating and/or picnic facilities where guests can enjoy their wine while gazing out at vineyards and gardens. The winery grounds can be a place where visitors relax or stroll around, as well as being a critical production element in the form of vineyards and fruit or vegetable gardens. Of course, not all visitors understand that the pretty grapes on the wine are the materials that you use to make the wine you sell. Even if your winery doesn’t mind visitors walking through the vineyards, you should ask guests to follow the National Parks motto, “Take only pictures and leave only footprints.”

Good signage will help in keeping guests out of restricted areas, but you have to be observant outside the tasting room as well as inside of it. One or more staff members should walk around the exterior of the building to make sure that things are looking clean and tidy and that people are conducting themselves appropriately and staying within the safe and secure areas of the winery.

Here are some final questions to test your knowledge in Module 2:

1. What are the two most common situations that cause accidents in the tasting bar setting?

a. Drunk and disorderly customers

b. Leaky plumbing and overflowing toilets

c. Spilled wine and broken glassware

d. Moldy cheese and melted chocolate

2. What is the National Parks motto that works also for guests walking around your winery?

a. “Eat, drink, and be merry”

b. “Take only pictures and leave only footprints”

c. “Hail, hail, the gang’s all here

d. “If you seek a pleasant place, you are here”

Answers: 1. c; 2. b.

Congratulations! You have reached the end of the second module. When you are ready, click on the following to move to Module 3.

MODULE 3: The Art of Story Telling (Wine and Winery Knowledge and Communication)