The Best Way to Figure Out How Much Wine You Need for a Party
There is a good chance that you were given several bottles of wine for the holidays. There’s a good chance you’ve already gone through them and it’s time to head to the liquor store for your next event. Whether you’re hosting a fancy dinner party or assigned a “wine attendant” for an informal meeting, the pressure remains. You want to choose something classy yet affordable , and more importantly, you want to make sure you have enough wine for everyone in attendance.
Of course, your party doesn’t need wine to enjoy each other’s company, but nothing spoils the mood more than finishing the last bottle too quickly. Luckily, we have a simple formula for how to calculate the perfect amount of wine so that no one goes hungry. Here are some helpful tips to help you always know exactly how much wine you need for any given party.
Fundamentals of wine mathematics
I’m not concerned with the amount of wine you pour in your spare time. However, a typical serving of restaurant-standard wine is four to five ounces. A standard size bottle of wine is 750 milliliters (or 25 ounces). This means that from a bottle you will get approximately six glasses of four servings or five glasses of five ounces, the latter being more common. And when sharing between friends, it’s even safer to say that one bottle of wine turns into four glasses out of five, since your party people are likely to pour more than trained waiters in a restaurant.
Calculating the amount of wine you will need
You may have heard that you should bring one bottle of wine per person , especially if you think everyone drinks about four glasses by the end of the night. It usually works out well. However, since this “bottle per person” rule doesn’t take into account the type of night you’re having, we offer a more specific rule of thumb (found on Love to Know ): Count one bottle of wine per two people each . two hours of fun.
Let’s do some math
Let’s say you’re hosting a four-hour party for 10 people. You will need one bottle of wine for every two guests, twice as much. This corresponds to 10 bottles of wine, according to the “one bottle per person” rule.
Otherwise, maybe you have a two-hour “book club”. If you have 10 book club members, you must bring at least five bottles of wine (at least ).
God saves man, who save himself
It’s always better to err on the side of having excess wine before it runs out. Calculate how much you’ll need first, then buy an extra bottle or two so you don’t have to spend the night worrying about someone drinking a little more than their share.
For more information on the types of wine you should buy for different parties, check out this post on Love to Know . Oh, what if you’re on wine duty not for a classy dinner party, but for a friend who just got fired/left/rejected? Come on, forget our math and bring as much wine as you can carry.