Formats · bottle, magnum, bag-in-box
Bag-in-box or bottles for an event?
Bag-in-box costs a quarter less, pours from a tap and needs neither a corkscrew nor a waiter. A bottle sits on the table and says something about the meal. The comparison below puts both, and the magnum, up against your volume: cost, containers to open, chilling, what the guests see.
The comparison for your volume
Set for 60 bottles, the volume of a lunch for 80 people. The price differences are orders of magnitude observed for Bordeaux: −25% for bag-in-box, +10% for magnum, for an equivalent wine.
When bag-in-box is the right choice, and when it isn't
Yes, without hesitation
- The Saturday lunch of a family reunion, when you're serving 80 people non-stop.
- The hunt lunch, long, outdoors, with a simple red that has to last all afternoon.
- The bar at a party: white and rosé on tap, in an ice tub, while the bottles go to the tables.
- A barbecue, a picnic, anything drunk from a plastic cup. The neighbours' party is the textbook example: four boxes for forty people.
No, or not only
- The seated dinner at a wedding. The bottle on the table is part of the meal; a jug filled in the kitchen isn't.
- A classified growth, a specific vintage: they don't exist in bag-in-box, and that's no bad thing.
- A corporate drinks reception where the client looks at the label.
- Fewer than 20 glasses: an opened 5-litre bag-in-box keeps for three weeks, but you don't buy one for six people.
What each format changes in practice
| Point | Bottle 75 cl | Magnum 150 cl | Bag-in-box 5 L |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 cl glasses | 6 | 12 | 41 |
| Price for the same volume | baseline | about +10% | about −25% |
| Containers to open for 60 bottles | 60 | 30 | 9 |
| Chilling to 8 °C in a tub | 20 min | 40 min | in the fridge the day before, then the tub |
| Once opened | 2 to 3 days | 2 to 3 days | 3 to 4 weeks |
| What the guest sees | the label, the vintage | the object, the effect on the table | a jug or a glass already poured |
| Bordeaux available | everything | classified growths, second wines, some crus bourgeois | Bordeaux, Bordeaux Supérieur, rosé |
Six glasses per bottle, 41 per bag-in-box: the detail of the sizes is on the page how many glasses in a bottle.
Is bag-in-box wine worse?
No, it's the same wine in different packaging, and it keeps better once opened because no air gets in. What is true is that nobody puts wine for laying down in it: the châteaux that pack in bag-in-box use it for Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur to drink within the year. For a lunch for 80 people, that's exactly what you need.
Can you mix both at the same event?
It's actually the most common solution. Bottles on the tables for dinner, bag-in-box at the bar for the evening's white and rosé: the budget goes where people taste it, and service is simplified where it needs to be fast. The comparison gives you the cost of each part; the quantity calculator tells you how much to put in each.
Is the magnum worth the extra?
On a table of ten, yes: one magnum for the table, opened in front of the guests, replaces two bottles and marks the meal. For twenty tables, the bill goes up 10% and chilling takes twice as long. The magnum is a choice for the top table, not for the whole room.
How do you serve bag-in-box without it showing?
In carafes or jugs filled in the back kitchen, set on the tables or at the bar. Nobody asks where the jug came from, and the wine is at the right temperature because the box stayed in its ice tub. A visible tap only belongs at a barbecue.
Is it worth a quote?
As soon as the volume goes over three or four bag-in-boxes, or about twenty bottles' worth. The comparison's “Get a price” button sends your quantities per format to the quote request; nothing is sent until you click.