by Charles Metcalfe
How do you sell wine more profitably if you\'re a good-value pizza chain with over 300 UK branches? You design seasonally-appropriate menus and
employ a wine consultant to find matching wines and educate the staff. Pizza Express started with a Sicilian menu and wines this summer, and has added new, Piemonte-inspired pizzas for the autumn. Wine consullant Adrian Garforth MW is charged with finding the matching Piemonte wines.
Top billing goes to the Pizza Trifolata , with five different types of mushroom, smoked mozzarella, garlic, rosemary and a splash of while truffle oil. The recommended wine is a Barbera d\'Alba from Terre del Barolo. Results of the Sicilian summer experiment look promising, with ten percent uplift from sales of house wine on the corresponding period last year.