Estate agency · key handover · client gift
The key handover bottle
On the day the client gets the keys, they get a bottle too. Fifteen to twenty-five euros, a card, sometimes the property's address on the label. One order a month, a stock at the agency, one invoice. Here is how to set it up so you never have to think about it.
Which bottle, at what price
The gesture
A Médoc cru bourgeois or a three-year-old Saint-Émilion. Right on any table, without making a fuss.
The standard
A second wine from a great château, or a Pessac-Léognan. The name is recognisable, the price stays reasonable for an agency.
The sale that matters
A classified growth, or the vintage from the year the house was built if it is old. Kept for the files that justify it. For a prestige sale, see the gift for the buyer of a prestige home.
The which wine to give guide covers what each budget buys in Bordeaux and who it suits.
The card and the label
A card in the agency's name, handwritten by the agent, does more than an expensive bottle. A custom label, with the property's address or the signing date, is possible on request, with a minimum number of bottles and a lead time: ask in the quote, and we will tell you what is feasible for your volume.
The monthly order
An agency closing two to four sales a month orders twelve to twenty-four bottles a month, or one case of six per agent. The stock stays at the agency, upright in a cupboard out of the light, and the quote is drawn up once for the year with the price per bottle and per case. The invoice is in the agency's name.
VAT on a client gift is recoverable as long as the value does not exceed €73 incl. VAT per recipient per year; a €20 bottle is well below the threshold. The VAT on wine page gives the rule and the documents to keep. For year-end gifts to referrers and notaries, the client gifts calculator prices the total.
What it brings in
A €20 bottle on a commission of several thousand euros is the cheapest gesture in the transaction, and the only one the client remembers six months later. They mention it at the housewarming dinner, where their neighbours, their friends and the next seller in the area are sitting. The maths is simple: one referral a year pays for ten years of bottles.
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What budget for a key handover bottle?
Fifteen to twenty-five euros a bottle is the range that suits most agencies: enough for a wine that gets noticed, not so much that it embarrasses the client or eats into the commission.
Can the property's address go on the label?
On request, with a minimum number of bottles and a production lead time. For an agency, the handwritten card is often simpler and more personal; the label makes sense for a developer handing over a whole scheme.
How to store the bottles at the agency?
Upright or lying down, in a closed cupboard, away from radiators and windows. A month's stock does not need a cellar; six months' does.
Should you order by the bottle or by the case?
By the case of six: that is where the price is. An order of two to four cases a month is the pace of an average agency, and it gives access to trade prices.