How to Stock a Ski Chalet Wine Cellar for the Season

Every chalet operator knows the maths of a bad wine plan: emergency supermarket runs on a Saturday changeover, guests drinking the good stuff by Wednesday, and a January storeroom full of wine nobody chose. Here is how we plan chalet cellars for the operators and owners we supply across Courchevel, Méribel, Val d'Isère, Chamonix and Megève.

The quantities

For a catered chalet, plan one bottle of wine per adult per night — half with dinner, half around the fire — plus one bottle of fizz per chalet per night for arrival drinks and celebrations. A ten-guest chalet on weekly changeovers gets through roughly 70–80 bottles a week. Order for the season in one delivery and you save money, stress and half your storeroom admin.

The four-slot list

Chalet wine works best as a tight list, poured generously:

• Arrival fizz — Champagne for the top weeks, crémant for the rest. Guests remember the first glass more than any other.
• The crowd-pleasing white — a Mâcon-Villages, Picpoul or Alpine Jacquère that works with raclette, fondue and everything the chef improvises.
• The everyday red — juicy and warming: cru Beaujolais, Côtes-du-Rhône Villages, a good Chianti. This is the bottle that empties fastest; buy double what you think.
• The fireside red — something with weight for the long evenings: Gigondas, Cornas, Barolo, a proper Bordeaux. One or two per week, and worth the step up.

Drink the mountains

Savoie wines are the most underrated pairing on the slopes and give your list a sense of place: Apremont and Abymes (crisp Jacquère, made for cheese), Chignin-Bergeron (richer Roussanne for the gastro nights), and Mondeuse — an Alpine red with bite that surprises everyone who tries it. We stock them alongside the classics.

Don't forget the bar

A chalet bar needs less variety than you think: one good gin, one vodka, one blended whisky and one single malt, a golden rum, plus génépi — because someone always asks. Add tonic, and double your mixer order.

Delivery before the transfer arrives

We deliver to chalets across the French, Italian and Austrian Alps — next-day from our Côte d'Azur warehouse for most resorts. Pre-season orders arrive unpacked and racked before your first guests land; in-season top-ups run weekly. Talk to us about a chalet account — one order, one invoice, and a cellar that lasts the season.