Promoting independent hospitality with the
Cardiff Wine Passport

After working with with many of Wales’ indie hospitality businesses throughout the pandemic, I know full well how hard trading conditions have been over the past few years. So, with inflation rises, staff shortages, and the ongoing after-effects of Covid and Brexit to contend with this winter, I wanted to encourage people back into our local, often family-owned venues, and draw them away from the identikit high-street chains.

I had the idea for a Cardiff Wine Passport after using a similar scheme in Bristol (which featured food, instead of wine) a couple of years ago, but finally got the chance to put it into action this year.

The Cardiff Wine Passport was a physical, 16-page keepsake booklet costing £25, which entitled each holder to claim a wine 'flight' from six different bars and restaurants around the city centre. Passport holders were invited to swap passport stamps for 175ml glasses of wine - with 11 different bars and restaurants taking part. Designed to boost midweek and Sunday trade for indies in the Welsh capital, it would also encourage people to try venues and wines they might never have considered - or heard of - before.

Valid for six weeks, from Sunday to Thursday, the passport offered a choice of two different wines at each venue. For an extra cost, passport holders could add a suggested food pairing, matching their glass of wine with a seasonal small plate or bar snack.

The independent hospitality businesses who signed up to be part of the scheme were:

• Bacareto: A relaxed and informal café bar, inspired by the small bàcari of Venice.

• Curado Bar: A Spanish deli bar on Westgate street serving pintxos (a small snack, traditional to bars in northern Spain)

• Kindle: A sustainability focussed, outdoor-only restaurant serving natural wines and food cooked over fire.

• Bar 44: A lively tapas bar serving classic and seasonal small plates and sherry poured straight from the barrel.

• Daffodil: A modern gastro pub, serving quality seasonal food with a focus on local Welsh produce.

• Gin & Juice: An all-day destination, serving breakfasts, lunch and light supper, with over 350 gins, beers, wines & spirits.

• Scaredy Cats: A casual café-bar in the heart Cardiff offers board games to play whilst you sip craft beer, coffee & wine.

• Vermut: A cosy hole-in-the-wall bar which specialises in the sale of Sherry, Vermouth, and wines from Montilla-Moriles.

• Asador 44: This restaurant serves impeccable ingredients cooked over an authentic Spanish grill with a modern touch.

• Rum & Fizz: Bringing the spirit of NYC to the Welsh capital, here you’ll find speciality rums, prosecco and wines.

• The Chilled & Tannin pop-up at Little Man Coffee: With extended Thursday opening hours, especially for the passport.

The creation of the Cardiff Wine Passport was supported by For Cardiff’s City Ambition Fund, which was set up to help support external projects which contribute to the future of the city. I put in an application, and was successful in securing £5,000 to fund the start-up costs for the project. Adrian Field at For Cardiff explained why:

“Our City Ambition Fund was set up to help realise the aims of our 2021-26 business plan, so we were delighted to fund the Cardiff Passport Project; it absolutely meets our objective of positively impacting multiple business’s recovery from the Covid-19, whilst positioning the city centre as a leisure and culture destination of choice.”

Using this funding, and by working with independent content producer Will Barker, and local graphic design studio I Am Sam Creative, we were able to bring the passport to life in just a few short weeks; launching a new website, social media channels, and newsletter to drive pre-sales, as well as designing and printing the physical passport itself.

The results

Over a period of one month, we grew the Cardiff Wine Passport social channels to more than 2,500 followers, the mailing list to almost 1,000 subscribers, and the website has recorded more than 6,500 visits since its launch. We also generated press coverage in local publications including Cardiff Life Magazine (see above), Wales Online, It’s On Cardiff, Buzz Magazine and Business News Wales. National wine writers Susy Atkins (Telegraph, Delicious Mag) and Fiona Beckett (Guardian, Decanter) also tweeted their admiration for the scheme.

Our efforts resulted in a website conversion rate of more than 7%, with 600+ passports sold over a three week period, generating £10,800 of revenue for the bars and restaurants involved. We await the feedback from the restaurants involved in the scheme regarding the average extra spend per head.

Customer feedback has also been consistently strong, and suggests that the passport was successful in introducing people to venues they had not visited before.

In January 2023, the Cardiff Wine Passport was shortlisted for Best News Business and Best Leisure & Tourism Business in the Cardiff Life Awards; the winners will be revealed at the end of February.

Following the success of this first Cardiff Wine Passport, we are planning for it to become an annual fixture in Cardiff’s events calendar. For more information and to stay up to date, you can follow the Cardiff Wine Passport on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @cdfwinepassport or visit www.cardiffwinepassport.co.uk.