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After posting the comments yesterday of former Tastings: A Wine Experience franchisee Andy Diaczyk about his decision to go independent and re-brand the restaurant as Sarasota Vineyard, I had a chance to talk to Tastings corporate HQ. Tastings co-owner and corporate director Mike Newfield explained that the situation is a bit different than Diaczyk described.

“This Sarasota store, for a number of reasons has been in violation of our franchise agreement, after any number of warnings to get the store up to our standards,” explained Newfield. “They didn’t comply and we legally terminated our franchise agreement. For us it was a quality issue.”

Last week, Tastings — which is based in Tampa — also pulled the franchise of the St. Petersburg location. The owners of that spot decided against re-opening under a different name. That leaves Tastings with five locations in several states, with another three in the pipeline.

Newfield also explained more about how the wines for the chain are chosen. The original list of 800 wines available to franchisees were picked by a French sommelier and a buyer for the well-regarded Sherry-Lehman wine store in New York. The 24-year old mentioned by Diaczyk just reviews the list of wines every year and determines — based on ratings and reviews in the press — whether wines should be dropped.

And the cost? “It’s the franchisees decision as to what to put on their wine list,” said Newfield. “We have over 100 wines that sell in the stores in the $10-15 range.” Tastings locations feature between 80-100 wines at any given time, and the chain encourages a balance among regions, varietals and pricing.

With the entire world of wine open to him — instead of the “just” 800 wines chosen by Tastings — we’ll soon see if Diaczyk can assemble a selection of wine that’s more to his liking.

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