Leaving drinks · moving to a new job
Wine for leaving drinks: ten bottles for thirty, and the bottle you give
A colleague is leaving the team for another job. Thirty people, one hour standing on a Thursday at 6 pm: ten or so bottles, bought from the wine shop on the way back from lunch. What deserves time is the other purchase: the bottle the team hands over with the card, and which they'll take to their new office.
The wine for the drinks
Set for 30 colleagues, one hour standing, 85% drinkers. Twenty-five and a half drinkers, two glasses each: fifty-one glasses, eight and a half bottles. With the 8% margin and each colour rounded to the bottle, the calculator shows 10: five sparkling, three white, two rosé. Under 12 bottles, it tells you that you don't need us, and it's true.
It isn't a retirement
The two sets of drinks look alike on the table but not underneath. Someone retiring is closing a career; someone changing jobs is starting one. The drinks are shorter, the team closer, and the bottle you give isn't chosen the same way. The retirement page covers the other case.
| Retirement | Moving to a new job | |
|---|---|---|
| Who comes | Forty people, the whole career | Thirty or so, the team and the people down the corridor |
| Length | An hour and a half, speeches included | An hour, often less |
| Bottles | 15 to 24 | 8 to 10 |
| Who pays for the drinks | Usually the employer | Often the person leaving, sometimes the department |
| The bottle given | The year they were hired, ready to drink now | The year they joined, to keep |
| Collection | ≈ €200 | €100 to €150 |
The bottle from the year they joined
Someone changing jobs has usually stayed three to ten years: they joined between 2015 and 2023. In Bordeaux, those are young vintages, and that's the whole point. A retirement calls for a ready bottle, opened the following Sunday; leaving for a new job calls for a bottle to keep, to be opened for the first real success there, or in ten years while thinking back on the team.
| Year joined | What the vintage is worth | Range |
|---|---|---|
| 2015, 2016 | Great years starting to open up: a cru bourgeois is already drinkable, a classified growth needs another five years | €30 to €120 |
| 2017, 2021 | Lighter years, to drink early: give a magnum from a neighbouring great year instead | not recommended |
| 2018, 2019, 2020 | Three great years in a row, closed today, beautiful in ten years | €25 to €120 |
| 2022, 2023 | 2022 sunny and powerful, 2023 more classic: gifts for laying down, not for the aperitif | €20 to €80 |
Indicative ranges, on quote. A collection of €5 from thirty colleagues makes €150: a classified growth's second wine from the year they joined, or a pair, one bottle ready for their welcome drinks and one to keep. For the year of birth, the birth-year vintage page; for other ideas by budget, which wine to give. To turn the collection into a bottle: the leaving gift tool.
How many bottles for leaving drinks for 30 people?
Ten, margin included, for one hour: five sparkling, three white, two rosé. As a raw count, eight and a half. If the drinks last an hour and a half, count thirteen. The calculator adjusts to your numbers and your timing.
Who pays for leaving drinks when someone changes jobs?
The most common custom: the person leaving pays for the drinks, the colleagues pay for the gift. In some companies, the department covers the drinks. If the invoice must be in the company's name, the corporate event page details the business invoice and what is deductible.
What wine should you give a colleague who is changing jobs?
A bottle from the year they joined, if it's a good vintage, to keep a few years; otherwise a magnum from a great recent year. The message isn't the same as at a retirement: you're wishing them well for what comes next, not a good rest. With a card signed by the whole team.
Do you need a wine merchant for leaving drinks?
Not for the drinks: ten bottles means a wine shop or a good supermarket aisle. For a gift bottle from a specific year, a quote can go and find it in a stock of vintages that shops no longer have; so can a specialist wine shop.
Leaving-drinks mistakes
- Retirement-size drinks for someone leaving after three years. Twenty-four bottles for thirty people at 6 pm means a case going home in the boot of the person leaving.
- A gift to drink straight away. A 2019 opened the following weekend will be hard and closed. Tell them to wait, or give a pair.
- Forgetting those who are driving home. At 6 pm, half the team is driving: sparkling water and a proper juice next to the sparkling wine, without comment. The wine and drivers page works out the soft drinks.
Longer drinks, a bigger team? The general calculator does the same calculation without presets. For the gift bottle, ask for a quote giving the year they joined and the amount of the collection.