Fuller’s wine program spans an impressive 385 pubs and hotels across the UK, offering everything from comforting pub classics to adventurous global cuisines. Lisa McBain DipWSET, Wine Buyer at Fuller’s, curates this dynamic offering, ensuring the wine selection resonates with regional preferences, complements diverse menus, and aligns with Fuller’s ambitious sustainability goals. From showcasing local English wines to exploring low-carbon initiatives, Lisa’s approach delivers wines that taste exceptional and tell a story. In this interview, Lisa shares her insights on crafting meaningful wine experiences, embracing sustainable practices, and navigating evolving customer preferences.

Fuller’s wine program spans 385 pubs and hotels, offering diverse dining experiences—from Sunday roasts to Thai cuisine. How do you balance creating approachable wine menus with incorporating unique, premium, and sustainable selections?

It all starts with the customer and with customer-led data that informs our food and drink strategy; from the suppliers we chose to the range, price points menu design, and service style. We aim to create a wine offering that perfectly complements our food, taking our guests on a journey from field to fork and grape to glass. Our goal is to surprise and delight with a wine selection that caters to all budgets and occasions. We are fortunate to serve such a wide and varied customer base, and whether you are a wine enthusiast or an occasional wine drinker, we want you to feel you are getting the best value for your money. Quality and taste are always our top priorities and in a convivial cosy pub environment, wines need to have good structure, fruit character, and a juicy mouthfeel. It is not our place to educate customers but to ensure when they are open to broadening their horizons from the likes of Pinot Grigio and Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, that we have new discoveries to quench their curiosity. Whether it is a quick pit stop at one of our transport venues for a glass of rosé on their way home or for something more complex by the bottle at one of our restaurant locations, the experience should always meet (ideally exceed!) our customers’ expectations. It is about serving the right wine at the right temperature, in the right glass by a staff member who appears confident and knowledgeable. 

Having relevant wine cues can also elevate our customers’ experience. An interesting seasonal wine-by-the-glass offer linked to key occasions such as Beaujolais Nouveau gives our customers confidence in us as an operator who takes wine seriously, but in a fun way! 

When it comes to sustainability, we know our customers—and our staff—care deeply about the impact of climate change and want to know how we are doing our bit to reduce our carbon footprint. That is why we actively signpost sustainable wines on our menu and encourage our suppliers to demonstrate all the amazing work they are doing to reduce their footprint. We are currently exploring how to incorporate lower carbon and regenerative farming indicators onto our menus so our customers can make even more well-informed decisions about which wines to purchase. 

Image: The Willow; source: Fullers.

Your wine lists emphasize low-carbon and British options, aligning with Fuller’s goal of achieving net zero by 2040. Could you share how you approach sourcing wines that align with these sustainability goals while meeting customer expectations?

We are passionate about sourcing ‘wines that do good’ so long as they taste delicious and can be served at a fair price to our customers. We recently launched a pair of wines (an Arteban red and a Floreal white) that taste great and happen to be PIWI wines. Our customers may or may not be familiar with what a PIWI hybrid wine is and so it is essential our staff taste the wine and have the confidence to offer our customers a sampling glass. Our wine sourcing strategy starts with capturing our suppliers’ scope three credentials and we will start being more selective about who we work with, prioritising those who can demonstrate how they are improving their carbon footprint across the value chain. We appreciate not all suppliers are capturing product-level emissions data and there is a cost attached, especially to the smaller producers but we all need to move towards this over the coming year/s. Switching from bottled at source to UK bottling offers huge carbon footprint savings as well as cost savings which can be passed onto the customer. So long as the quality is not compromised, the opportunity will be to bottle more premium wines in this way, working with a UK bottler who can see the potential growth opportunity and can offer flexibility with MOQs. Other initiatives we are actively asking our suppliers to demonstrate include right weighting, consolidating and grouping shipments, removing foil capsules, wine on tap formats, and of course regenerative farming which, as a term already feels much better understood than the broader ‘sustainability’ brush that our industry has been using for so long.  

With such a broad estate, how do you ensure the wine offerings reflect regional preferences and complement the individual character of each Fuller’s pub and hotel?

We have mapped our estate by region and by customer profile to create a base to work from. In each region/concept, we have dedicated service coaches and WSET-trained wine champions who have the local knowledge and the passion for great service to motivate and inspire our teams to sell more and better. We regularly hold customer focus groups to understand what our customers want to shape our range & service offer. We are keen to ensure our venues have access to locally produced wines and encourage sampling sessions to encourage customers to trade up. Our GMs know who their customers are and regularly feedback requests for new wines or changes to their menu which we try to oblige. Whilst our venues have a fixed range, they have the flexibility to choose from an off-menu list that includes larger formats, rare classics from Burgundy and Bordeaux, esoteric wines such as orange/skin contact, and small parcels of lesser-known grapes and regions. This ensures our GMs can stamp their personality on their wine list.

Image: Members of the Fuller’s Family – including front of house, back of house, and support centre team members – learn about all things Fuller’s.

How do natural and minimal-intervention wines fit into Fuller’s wine program, and what has been the customer response?

I am a huge fan of low-intervention wines, and it is incredibly reassuring to see how many of our producers are moving/have moved in that direction, be it certified or not. Most of our wines are from family-owned producers who are passionate about passing their land onto generations to come and therefore chose to use as few sprays as possible to preserve their land for the long term. The reality is that in a challenging year with adverse weather conditions, the decision to spray or not will determine if you have a crop or not. There is a lot at stake! A very well-respected producer from Piedmont once said to me ‘If a baby cries, you give her milk, well it is the same for our vines.’ We have a delicious skin contact Chenin Blanc across our estate which performs well, and I am launching another orange wine for the summer season. By having a few ‘natural-esque- wines in our portfolio, we can tap into the growing customer demand for authenticity and responsibility. I do not think we would lead with the fact that a wine was natural but rather lead on the taste and style as a priority. 

How do non-alcoholic wines and spirits fit into your selection, and where do you see this category evolving in the coming years?

We are really encouraged by the quality and taste improvement of brands in this category so much so that we recently launched a range of still alcohol-free wines into our estate which have been well received. To tap into dry/try Jan we are running a prix fixe menu this season which offers a free glass of delicious blanc de blancs alc free sparkling wine. We hope this will inspire customers to buy a glass! We are seeing a trend for lower-tempo drinking occasions such as brunch/lunch and the morning after and so we aim to elevate our summer drinks offer with a handful of wine/spirit-based cocktails which can be served with an alcohol-free alternative. Interestingly, our wedding bookings team has been receiving much greater demand for quality alcohol-free alternatives and so this continues to be an important category for us and our customers.

Image: Low & alcohol-free alternatives at Fuller’s; source: Fuller’s

Coaching and mentoring are key aspects of your work. How do you foster a culture of learning and development among your teams to enhance both staff and customer engagement?

By the age of 21, I had landed my first GM role for a large-style bar/restaurant in the city at the forefront of mixology and fine dining. It was a lot of pressure, but I relished being part of something so innovative and I loved the people management and recruitment element; with a team of no less than 80 FOH staff, it was a fast lesson in diplomacy, problem-solving, and empathy. As I progressed my career from operations onto HQ roles (sales/marketing/buying), whilst I still really enjoyed managing teams, with the advent of the internet and people working more remotely, the opportunity for brainstorming/blue sky thinking sessions had massively reduced and so was creativity, innovation and work enjoyment for many colleagues and supplier friends. Having read up on the principles of coaching I began hosting small coaching group sessions which gave people the time to explore their ideas and concerns in a non-judgemental space. I eventually took this coaching outdoors for ‘walky-talky’ sessions which furthermore inspired innovative ideas and ways of thinking. In business, we are so busy that we sometimes forget how impactful it is to give space for reflection and idea generation. Our industry is special in that it is truly inclusive; you do not need technical ability (that can be learned on the job, but what you do need is the ‘hospitality gene;’ the desire to serve, and a love of people! With such a diverse workforce, coaching can really support talent on their journey to success. We can all use coaching principles in day-to-day conversations – so long as we are actively listening and staying curious, we can all wear the art of possibility on our sleeves! I am in a fortunate position with so many years of experience behind me, to encourage the next generation of talent to join our amazing industry. My career has been squiggly rather than a straight line which is common for our industry. To quote a 13th century poet “What you seek is seeking you”.

Image: Lisa Mcbain DipWSET at Saira Hospitality.

What trends in wine consumption and preferences have you noticed among Fuller’s customers, and how do you adapt the wine offering to meet these evolving demands?

We have seen a trend towards lighter styles of wine such as Pinot Noir, taking volume from Malbec and other bigger, fruit-forward wines. Our rosé sales continue to perform well YOY and so we will tap into this trend with an elevated offer for the summer season. Large formats perform well for us and offer a bit of theatre and fun, so we shall be looking to extend this range this year, across reds, whites, and rosé. Customers are becoming even more knowledgeable so it is important we have some ‘new classics’ and on-trend grapes/styles and regions to feed this interest as well as a nice range of rare wines that will surprise and delight on those more indulgent occasions. Wine consumption is becoming more intentional so we will aim to create opportunities for our customers to get excited about wine and give them every reason to visit us with wine-of-the-month tastings, grower-hosted events, and winemaker takeovers. 

Image: Fuller’s Sutton Arms, UK. Source: Sutton Arms.

What excites you most about the future of wine in the hospitality industry, and where do you hope to make the biggest impact in your current role?

If we sell more wine this year, we know we are doing something right so that really must be the key marker of my success! I am passionate about broadening customer horizons in wine by introducing them to new ‘alternatives to the classics’ and I love the wines coming out of central Europe – the dry whites from Hungary and Slovenia and the reds from Southern Hungary and mountainous/volcanic wines from Etna. We are seeing some characterful wines from England now and with so many more producers the availability of stock is more appealing. I would love to say by 2027 30% of our list will be English, but that is a bit ambitious! I am also really encouraged by the quality and availability of differing wine-on-tap formats. With the EPR and glass collection tariffs coming into play this year to ensure we are giving the best quality and price to our customers; we need to seriously explore wine on tap and other formats. Customer perception has started to change thanks to some credible on-trade operators now readily serving wine on tap and so I can see this becoming a more everyday ‘expectation’ from our customers over the coming years. 

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Conclusion

As the hospitality industry continues to evolve, Lisa McBain and her team at Fuller’s exemplify how thoughtful wine programs can enhance the guest experience while embracing sustainability and regional diversity. By championing local producers, prioritizing education and engagement, and adapting to shifting consumer trends, Fuller’s creates a sense of discovery and connection with every glass poured. Lisa’s vision underscores the transformative potential of wine in hospitality—not just as a beverage, but as a bridge between people, places, and stories.

In conversation with Malvika Patel, Editor and VP, Beverage Trade Network

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