Christmas · family · menu and quantities
Wine for a family Christmas: the menu, the quantities for twelve, the order
Twelve at table on the evening of the 24th: six to eight bottles are enough. That is not much, and it is the meal of the year, so not the same bottles as usual. Build the menu below, read the wine dish by dish, then decide whether you need a wine merchant or your local wine shop.
The menu, dish by dish
Preset to a classic French Christmas menu. Change a dish, the wine changes with it, and the share of white, red and sparkling is recalculated.
Six to eight bottles, but which ones
The aperitif
One flute per person on arrival, a second for those who linger. Two bottles of champagne for twelve, or just one if the foie gras comes quickly.
The foie gras
A Sauternes or a Loupiac, served at 8 °C, half a glass each. A 75 cl bottle serves sixteen; a half is enough for eight. Detail on the page wine with foie gras.
The capon, the turkey, the game
Three bottles for twelve for the main and the cheese: a Médoc or a Saint-Émilion five to ten years old. This is where the money goes, and this is where you open the bottle you were saving.
The bûche de Noël
Sparkling with the dessert, or the rest of the sweet wine. Many people drink nothing more at this point; one bottle is a maximum, not an obligation.
The page wine with the Christmas menu goes through each dish, with alternatives when the menu strays from the classic: oysters, salmon, lamb, vegetarian menu.
The bottle to open
A Christmas meal needs one bottle that counts. Not six: one. A Bordeaux ten or fifteen years old with the main course, opened an hour before, served at 17 °C, changes the meal more surely than the whole rest of the cellar. The rest can be good and simple. The vintages that are in their window in 2026, and what they cost, are on the page which wine to give, which also helps you choose the bottle to bring when you are invited.
| Item | Bottles for 12 | Decent budget | Good budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sparkling, aperitif and dessert | 2 to 3 | €50–75 | €65–100 |
| Sweet wine, foie gras | 1 half or 1 | €12–20 | €20–35 |
| Red, main and cheese | 3 | €30–45 | €50–90 |
| The bottle that counts | 1, among the 3 | — | €40–80 |
| Total | 6 to 8 | €90–140 | €175–300 |
At this volume, your local wine shop will do
Eight bottles is a trip to the wine shop or a good supermarket shelf, and that is fine. A wine merchant becomes useful from about twenty bottles, when volume pricing and delivery make up for the trip, or when you are looking for a particular vintage the wine shop doesn't have. The quantity calculator says so itself below eighteen bottles. If Christmas brings thirty people together over two days, the answer changes; the page when to order for the holidays then gives the dates not to miss.
How many bottles of wine for a Christmas dinner for 12?
Six to eight bottles, all colours together: two or three of sparkling, one of sweet wine or a half, three of red. That assumes nine or ten drinkers out of twelve, which is normal for a family table with children and drivers.
Champagne or crémant for Christmas?
For two bottles, the price difference is thirty euros and it shows in the glass: take the champagne. Crémant has its place when the sparkling flows all evening for fifty people, not for one flute on arrival on the 24th.
When should you buy the Christmas wine?
In November, or earlier. Wine does not change in a case over six weeks, the price does not go up, and in December delivery times double. For an order from a wine merchant, 5 December is the last reasonable date for a grouped delivery.
What do you do with the wine guests bring?
You open it, or you keep it, depending on what the guest expects. A bottle brought with ceremony gets served; a bottle left in the hallway gets a thank-you and is kept. Plan your eight bottles without counting on anyone else's: whatever stays unopened gets drunk in January.