Forget the sweeping ocean vistas, Tuscan-inspired architecture, champagne-feted sunsets, or even the Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed golf course.
For wine aficionados, the million-dollar view at the St. Regis Monarch Beach resort in Dana Point is three stories below the main lobby, behind locked doors.
That’s the location of the Forbes five-star-rated resort’s wine cellar, constructed with materials from a 100-year-old chateau in Bordeaux, France, a world-renowned wine producing city.
The room was one of the first structures built at St. Regis, which opened in 2001. The 200-acre spread joined the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in the uppermost tier of Orange County’s resort scene, followed by the Montage Laguna Beach and the Resort at Pelican Hill.
Keys
Only a handful of resort employees have keys to the cellar at St. Regis, home to an inventory of wines that is among the most extensive in Orange County. It’s also a growing source of revenue for the resort and its associated restaurants—a sure sign of improving fortunes for the region’s higher-end restaurants.
The cellar holds nearly 15,000 bottles of wine, including extensive selections from France and California, of course, to go with vintages from the islands of New Zealand, valleys in Chile and other wine regions of lesser renown.
The bottles in the cellar combine with the stock at the resort’s restaurants and bars for a retail value of about $1 million at the moment, according to Paul Coker, sommelier for Stonehill Tavern, one of six restaurants at the resort. The cellar’s stock will grow to nearly 20,000 bottles for peak season this summer as travelers from around the world descend on the St. Regis and wedding season gets into high gear.
The cellar serves what the resort refers to as its nine “outlets”—sit-down restaurants, plus the St. Regis’ bars, lounges and in-room dining options.
Wine is a big and growing source of business for the resort, which is owned by Seattle-based Washington Real Estate Holdings LLC.
The St. Regis had nearly $20 million in beverage revenue in 2013, up about 20% from 2012, according to Coker.
That includes wine and other alcohol—Kettle One Vodka, whose U.S. operations are based in Aliso Viejo, is a big seller at the resort.
Old Look, New System
Keeping track of the wine in the cellar’s main room and its handful of smaller storage areas can be a complicated process, said Coker, who joined Stonehill Tavern in 2012.
“You have to be on top of it,” he said.
The resort has a full-time cellar master, Johnny Segura, who oversees its beverage purchasing.
Each restaurant on the grounds is responsible for managing and replenishing its own inventories.
A detailed review of the cellar’s inventory is done every quarter and takes a day or two to complete.
Despite the old-world look of the cellar, with its stone walls and iron furnishings, there’s been a touch of modernization of late. A new bin system for organizing the wines has helped speed up the inventory-review process over the past year, Coker said.
Coker adds 20 to 30 wine selections to Stonehill Tavern’s collection every other week. The restaurant is part of celebrity chef Michael Mina’s San Francisco-based Mina Group LLC, which operates 19 upscale restaurants. It currently offers about 850 wine selections on its menu.
Bottles from Napa-based Stags’ Leap Wine Cellars are big sellers at Stonehill Tavern these days. Wine paring, done in tandem with Executive Chef Raj Dixit’s multicourse tasting menu, also is a popular option.
Coker’s strategy for guests: “You have to remember that you are pairing the wine with the diner, not the dinner.”
“Savvy” Customers
Stonehill Tavern and the other restaurants on the St. Regis’ grounds generate a majority of their business from guests staying at the resort, said David Borowik, Stonehill Tavern’s general manager.
The restaurant also gets a share of guests from other nearby resorts, including the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel and the Montage Laguna Beach, he said.
The restaurant’s wine selections, though, have generated a strong local following, bringing in more repeat business.
“Most of our big spenders are local,” Coker said.
It’s “a very wine-savvy clientele” overall, said Mina, who was named Wine Enthusiast Magazine’s Restaurateur of the Year in 2012.
Stonehill Tavern is one of Mina Group’s three best-performing casual dining restaurants in terms of wine and beverage sales, Mina said. It counts on about $40,000 a month in beverage sales during winter months and triple that amount during the resort’s peak summer months.
Exclusive Offerings
Local wine lovers are a big customer segment, but some of the restaurant’s biggest spenders travel the farthest.
A Saudi prince who visited the resort around the holidays is said to have spent several thousand dollars on one bottle, and the occasional business guest will snap up one of Stonehill’s selection of more than 20 wines that top the $1,000 mark.
The restaurant’s wine list includes a large number of bottles from the Burgundy estate of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, whose wines are among the world’s most expensive.
The restaurant aims selections to be relatively affordable for the most part, Coker said. Buying in bulk often allows Stonehill to offer wines below retail prices, and a large number of its selections aren’t offered in stores.
