Company · January New Year reception
Wine for the company New Year reception: the galette, sparkling, an hour and a half standing
The New Year reception (the vœux, when the boss gives the New Year address) is the shortest of company events and the one ordered latest. For 80 people, an hour and a half, the galette and a speech: forty or so bottles, almost all of them sparkling. The real difficulty isn't the quantity, it's delivery in the first week of January.
The calculation for your reception
Set for 80 people, 85% drinking, an hour and a half of reception, and an unusual split: 80% sparkling, 20% white, no red or rosé. The galette calls for nothing else.
Champagne or crémant
On 42 rounded-up bottles, 30 of them sparkling, the champagne question is worth €600: at €32 a bottle against €12 for a crémant, for the same number of flutes. Three ways to decide, depending on what the reception says about the year.
All champagne
The year was good and the boss says so. A well-known house, served at 7 °C, in flutes. The wine becomes part of the speech.
All crémant
Crémant de Bordeaux, available on request, makes the same gesture for a third of the price. Nobody complains at 11 am with a slice of galette.
Champagne for the toast, crémant for the rest
Champagne for the flute raised at the speech, crémant for the ones after. The most common compromise, and the smartest: the first glass is the one people remember.
The dry white in the remaining 12 bottles is for those who don't want sparkling: a dry white Bordeaux, chilled, unpretentious. The full table for 20, 50 or 100 people is on the champagne for 20, 50 or 100 page.
Delivery in the first week of January
This is the New Year reception trap. Between 20 December and 3 January, carriers run at a slower pace, warehouses close, and an order placed on 28 December for 6 January arrives on the 9th. Two solutions, and only one really safe.
| Option | Firm order before | Delivery | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deliver before Christmas, store at the office | 10 December | 15 to 20 December | None, if the sparkling has a cool, locked place for two weeks. |
| Deliver in the first week of January | 15 December | 3 to 7 January | A day's delay is possible; hold the reception from the 8th. |
| Order in January | — | Within a week | Only for wines in stock, and not before the 8th. |
The December countdown, calculated on your date, is on the page year-end festivities: when to order.
How many bottles for a New Year reception for 80 people?
Thirty or so before rounding, 42 in cases of six, for an hour and a half with 85% drinkers: 30 bottles of sparkling and 12 of dry white. Two and a half glasses per drinker in all, including the toast flute. Only one hour, and it comes down to 30.
What budget for the New Year reception?
Between €5 and €15 per person in wine depending on the share of champagne: €360 for all crémant, €960 for all champagne for the sparkling, plus a hundred euros or so of dry white. The galette costs as much as the crémant; it's the champagne that makes the budget.
Can the VAT on the New Year reception be reclaimed?
The New Year reception is an event held in the company's interest, open to employees and often to clients: as a general rule the VAT is deductible, with an invoice in the company's name. The rules for company purchasing, invoice and payment terms included, are on the corporate event page.
At what temperature should you serve sparkling at 11 in the morning?
At 7 °C, which means bottles taken from a fridge or an ice tub at the last moment, not from an office cupboard at 21 °C. Thirty bottles fit in two 100-litre tubs with 15 kg of ice; allow twenty minutes before the speech.
New Year reception mistakes
- Ordering on 2 January. The firm order goes in before 15 December, or you serve whatever is left in stock, delivered on the 8th at the earliest.
- Planning red. At 11 am with a galette, nobody drinks it. Sparkling and a dry white; the red waits for the annual party. If the galette is just among colleagues, without the New Year address, the galette des rois at the office page counts twenty or so bottles for sixty.
- Serving it lukewarm. Lukewarm champagne is the only detail of the reception people remember the following year. Two ice tubs, twenty minutes.
- One flute for two. Count one flute per person present plus 5%: 85 for 80. Without flutes, the sparkling gets served in plastic cups, and the gesture is lost.