Charcuterie boards became an Instagram sensation during the pandemic and are still going strong, but not everyone is adept at curating one. Enter Graze Craze, the West Palm Beach, Florida-based chain that has grown to 100 units by making the charcuterie experience easily accessible to everyone.
But customers were asking for more, looking for ways to bring wine into the experience, said Graze Craze CEO Cory Hibbard. He set out to “solve for wine” in the same unintimidating and convenient way Graze Craze solved for charcuterie.
“I was scrolling through social media and came across Warner Boin Dowlearn on TikTok,” said Hibbard. “She calls herself the ‘snob-free somm’ and has the same approach to wine as we have to charcuterie.”
With the goal of partnering with Dowlearn’s company, Confidence Uncorked, Hibbard and his team debated whether to hold a class, create a guide or try something else that “made the wine world less daunting,” he said. Ultimately, Dowlearn created a 12-page “Pocket Guide to Wine Pairings” that comes with Graze Craze’s new Wine Pairing Board.
The 12-page guide is filled with pairing tips.
The hand-crafted board offers an assortment of the brand’s most popular food items, including dips, meats, cheeses, veggies, condiments, fruits and chocolate. It comes in three sizes: Large for up to 20 grazers, Small to feed about 10 people and the Picnic Box for more intimate gatherings of up to four, geared to girls’ night out and similar occasions. Each comes with Dowlearn’s Pocket Guide offering suggestions for pairing red, white, rosé and sparkling wines with the bites on the boards.
For example, she recommends pairing bold wines with aged cheeses, such as aged cheddar and Cabernet Sauvignon. For fattier cheeses and meats, crisp, zippy wines provide acid to cut through the fat; sparkling wine and rosé are the best bets, Dowlearn believes. More detailed suggestions are given as the guide progresses. Wine pairings with grapes, brie and Raincoast Crackers, for instance, veer toward creamy, fuller bodies whites like Chardonnay and Viognier.
For sober curious customers who are not drinking wine, Dowlearn is not bashful about suggesting non-alcoholic wines or other alternatives, said Hibbard. Although those are not included in the guide, the information is readily available on her website and through her social media feeds.
About 20 of Graze Craze’s locations actually do sell wine and beer, but the chain is not interested in promoting wine or becoming a wine retailer. Instead, the goal is to make customers more confident and comfortable with the wine pairing experience, said Hibbard. In the process, he’s seen robust sell-through of the wine pairing boards in the first two weeks they’ve been offered and more orders coming through the website.
“We both share a belief that wine should be fun, approachable and delicious, but many people still worry that they’ll make the ‘wrong’ choice,” said Dowlearn in a statement. “We’ve removed the uncertainty with Graze Craze’s Wine Pairing Board and the Pocket Guide.”
“Convenience is at the core of everything we do,” Hibbard said. “This is more about bringing the experience to the people; giving them the total package.”
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