Organize the wine list
A wine list is browsed, not read. The structure decides whether a guest finds something in thirty seconds or hands the phone back and asks the floor.
What you start with
Enabling the wine list seeds a complete, ordered category tree with descriptions — still wines split into whites, orange wines, rosés and reds; sparkling wines split by production method; and the other families.
It is a starting point, not a prescription. Rename what does not match the house, delete what you do not sell, add what is missing.
Choose one organizing principle
The mistake that makes wine lists unusable is mixing principles. Pick one and apply it to the whole list:
| Principle | Structure | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| By type | Whites, reds, rosés, sparkling | Most restaurants; the seeded default |
| By region | Rioja, Ribera, Rías Baixas, Burgundy | Lists with regional depth |
| By style | Fresh and light, structured, aromatic | Lists curated for non-experts |
| By occasion | By the glass, to share, for a celebration | Short, commercial lists |
A list that starts by type, then switches to region halfway down, forces the guest to learn the structure before they can use it.
Use nesting sparingly
One level of nesting is available, and a wine list is the menu type most likely to need it:
Still wines
Whites
Rosés
Reds
Sparkling wines
Champagne
CavaDo not push it further. A wine list with fifteen sections and forty subsections is a database, not a menu.
Flat navigation is the default here
The wine list's category navigation renders flat by default, unlike the other menu types. That matches how wine lists are browsed — jumping between families rather than drilling down through a hierarchy.
The behavior is a per-menu-type setting: Use flat category navigation for … archive under Content settings → Content settings. Switch it off if your structure genuinely reads better nested.
Order inside a section
Within a family, guests scan top to bottom, so put deliberate thought into the first three entries:
- open with something recognizable and well priced;
- keep producers together when you carry several of their wines;
- do not sort strictly by price unless the list is explicitly a price list;
- finish with the wine you would like a celebrating table to find.
Item order is set by dragging on All items and saves immediately.
The by-the-glass section
A by-the-glass selection deserves its own category at the top of the list. It is the section most guests read first, the one that changes most often, and the one the floor is asked about most.
Keep the wines in it in their family sections too if that suits the list; an item can hold more than one category.
Wines with no category
Wine list items are not auto-filed when published, unlike other menu types. A wine published without a category stays in Uncategorized Items and is invisible to guests.
Check that panel after any import — it is the standard failure mode of a bulk wine load.
Categories and printed material
A category's archive has its own address, so a printed QR code pointing at Sparkling wines stops working if that category is renamed or removed. Point table codes at the wine list archive rather than at a family.