Company · two-day seminar
Wine for a corporate seminar: dinner, evening, and the hotel's corkage fee
Sixty staff, two days, a hotel or an estate. The wine comes down to three moments: an aperitif on arrival, dinner on the first evening, and what follows. Count sixty or so bottles, rounded to the case, and one question to settle before anything else: will the hotel let your wine in, and at what price?
The calculation for your seminar
Set for 60 participants, 80% drinking wine, a one-hour aperitif, a seated dinner, two hours of evening. The working lunch the next day isn't counted: no wine is served, or one bottle for six.
What each moment uses
The arrival aperitif
An hour standing after the journey, before dinner. Sparkling, white, rosé; 16 bottles before rounding for 48 drinkers. This is the moment people underestimate thirst.
The dinner
Seated, a white with the starter, two reds with the main and the cheese. 24 bottles before rounding. The only moment a classified growth makes sense.
The evening
Sparkling and rosé, 12 bottles before rounding. A seminar ends early or ends late; the next morning decides. Two hours is the cautious setting.
The margin
52 bottles before rounding become 66 in cases: 18 red, 18 white, 12 rosé, 18 sparkling. Unopened cases are not taken back: the margin is kept tight on purpose.
The hotel's corkage fee: the question to ask first
Most hotels and seminar estates sell their own wine and charge a corkage fee if you bring yours: €8 to €20 per bottle, sometimes more for sparkling. At €8, bringing a wine bought at €12 still comes out ahead of a list at €30. At €20, only if you're after wines the hotel doesn't offer. The corkage calculator gives the exact break-even on your figures.
| Scenario | Fee / btl | Your wine | Cost for 66 btl | Hotel wine at €28 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moderate fee | €8 | €12 | €1,320 | €1,848 |
| High fee | €18 | €12 | €1,980 | €1,848 |
| High fee, ambitious wine | €18 | €25 | €2,838 | €1,848 for a wine that doesn't compare |
Negotiate the fee per bottle opened, not brought, and ask whether service and glassware are included. A fee “per person” can be converted: €6 per guest for 60 people and 66 bottles is €5.45 a bottle.
How many bottles for a seminar of 60 people?
Fifty or so before rounding, 66 in cases of six, for a one-hour aperitif, a dinner and two hours of evening with 80% drinkers: 18 red, 18 white, 12 rosé, 18 sparkling. Without the evening, take off a dozen bottles of sparkling and rosé.
What wine budget per participant?
From €12 to €18 incl. VAT per person with good-level Bordeaux and champagne at the aperitif, €8 to €11 sticking to decent wines, €25 and more with classified growths at dinner. VAT is generally recoverable on a reception held in the company's interest: read these amounts as excl. VAT minus 20%; your accountant will confirm.
Who delivers, and where?
To the seminar venue, the day before or that morning, to a named contact on site. Eleven cases go as parcels; the hotel stores them somewhere cool if you've told it in advance. The invoice is in the company's name, with payment terms for identified businesses. The rest of the corporate logistics is on the corporate event page.
And for the evening entertainment?
A blind tasting after dinner makes a good replacement for karaoke: six wines, a scoring sheet per table, an in-house host. The wine team building page gives the kit and the running order for twenty people; for sixty, you triple the bottles, not the wines.
Seminar organisers' mistakes
- Discovering the corkage fee on the invoice. It's in the venue's terms, in small print. Ask for it in writing before ordering the wine.
- Serving wine at the working lunch. The afternoon's work will show it. One bottle for six, or water.
- Delivering to head office. Eleven cases travel badly in the HR manager's boot. Delivery to the venue, with the name and phone number of a contact.
- Counting registrations. At a seminar, 10% of those registered don't turn up for dinner. The “guests” field wants the likely attendance.
A different programme? The general calculator combines moments freely. Ask for a business quote.