Field note · 1 April 2026
A group deposit is a weather vane, not a guarantee
How to read coach-party holds on Kakheti harvest weeks without staffing the kitchen as if every name on the list will sit down.
Harvest-week coach holds look decisive because they arrive with a stamp and a deposit. Kitchens plan as if forty covers were already in the chairs. Then picking moves three days, or a second winery undercuts the lunch, and half the names were never going to travel. The deposit was a weather vane: it told you wind direction, not that the weather would hold.
In a cancellation reading we split those holds into three piles: groups that historically arrive within a small variance, groups that historically shrink, and groups that use your table as a backup while they wait on a larger cellar. Your own two-year book usually already contains the split. What it lacks is the habit of labelling it before the week begins.
None of this requires a new reservation system. It requires a margin note on the hold itself. If a partner refuses that note, the briefing will say so in plain language rather than dressing the deposit up as occupancy.