Agapes · fraternal meal · lodge
Wine for a lodge's festive board: the meal after the meeting, every month
Thirty to eighty diners, a seated meal after the lodge meeting, toasts drunk together, and all of it ten times a year. The calculator is set for forty at table; change the number, the budget, the share of white. For the toasts, add one bottle per ten diners.
How many bottles for your festive board
Nothing is sent until you click on the quote.
The toasts: what they add
The obligatory toasts are drunk standing, glass charged, several times during the meal depending on the rite. Each one needs only a drop in the glass, but they add up: one extra bottle per ten diners covers the whole meal. Use the same wine as the main course, rather than a separate wine nobody will drink afterwards.
| Diners | Extra bottles for the toasts |
|---|---|
| 30 | 3 |
| 40 | 4 |
| 60 | 6 |
| 80 | 8 |
Over the year
- One order a quarter. Three festive boards at once, delivered to the temple or to the Almoner (frère hospitalier), at a time when someone can receive them. Fewer deliveries, lower delivery costs.
- A house wine. The same red and the same white from one meeting to the next, chosen once: a Bordeaux Supérieur or a cru bourgeois at around €10–15 keeps within the budget of a fraternal meal. Great châteaux' second wines make a good celebration wine without the price of the grand vin.
- The two feasts of the year. The solstice banquets, in June and December, often bring together twice as many people, with visitors and families: an older wine for those evenings, see the vintages to drink in 2026.
- The quote and the invoice in the name you give, usually that of the association behind the lodge. The request need say no more than “association dinner”.
How much wine for a festive board of forty?
For a two-hour seated meal, allow three quarters of a bottle per diner, margin included, then one bottle per ten diners for the toasts. The calculator above does the exact count, white and red separately.
Red or white for the toasts?
The wine of the main course, most often the red. A white if the meal is fish. A champagne for the solstice feast, if the budget allows.
Can you keep stock from one meeting to the next?
Yes, if the temple has a storeroom away from heat. Bottles lying down, opened cases noted: at ten festive boards a year, two or three cases in hand avoid the last-minute rush.
And for other clubs that dine every month?
The calculation is the same for any regular association dinner: see also association dinners, or the general calculator for another format.
For three festive boards at once or the solstice feast, request a quote, giving the number of diners and the dates.