Two summers ago we shipped one hundred forty-four bottles of a single label to a family reunion on the coast in Santa Barbara. The family flew in from eleven countries. The label was the family's monogram in foil with the founding year of the patriarch's emigration. The patriarch was ninety-one. The grandchildren ranged from six to twenty-four. The bottle was opened, the patriarch toasted, and the wine became, that afternoon, the family wine for the next generation.
The right number for a reunion
Forty-eight bottles is right for a single household; a reunion needs more. We have shipped programs of forty-eight, ninety-six, one hundred and forty-four, and two hundred and forty bottles for reunions. The right number is the headcount divided by two, rounded up to the nearest case. A reunion of sixty people: ninety-six bottles. A reunion of one hundred and twenty: one hundred and forty-four. The wine should not run out before the toast; the toast is the moment.
The label as keepsake
Most reunion families take a bottle home un-opened. The label becomes the family object the cousin keeps. We have heard from customers, two and three years after a reunion, that the bottle is still on the cousin's shelf, that the brother-in-law put one on the office credenza. The label is the keepsake. The toast is the ritual. The wine is incidental.
Logistics
Reunion orders ship to the venue. We coordinate with the venue's beverage manager for pre-arrival cooling and storage. We can pre-set the bottles on the tables before guests arrive. We can also ship surplus bottles back to the customer's home cellar after the event. The reunion order is the most logistically involved customer relationship we have, and the one most worth the operational care.