Summer is in full swing and weddings are in the works. I’ve advised many couples on what wines to pick for their big day. In order to pick the perfect wine, we talk about the venue, the food that will be served, the type of guests expected (lots of winos or all teetotalers?), and the budget. One of the first questions couples ask me is “how much wine do we really need to buy?”. The answer, of course, is different for every wedding but there are some general guidelines that you might find helpful:
1) Venue: The first thing to check is whether or not the venue will even allow you to bring in your own wine. Some venues require that you select wines off their pre-existing list. Other venues will allow you to bring in your own wine but may charge a corkage fee per bottle.
Assuming your venue allows you to bring in wine (and the corkage fee is doable with your budget), you will most likely want to pick a sparkling wine, a white and a red. Let’s start with the sparkling…
2) Champagne/Sparkling: Sparkling wine (Champagne, Cava, Prosecco, etc.) is mainly used for toasting the happy couple. I usually recommend 2 glasses of sparkling wine per guest. There are 6 full glasses of sparkling wine in a standard 750ml bottle. You get more glasses per bottle out of sparkling wine because of the bubbles and the shape of the champagne flute. So here is an example calculation:
70 guests x 2 glasses each = 140 glasses
140 glasses / 6 glasses per bottle = ~23 bottles
I’d recommend 2 cases of sparkling wine - 12 bottles = 1 case –> sparkling wine at Urban Vintner comes in a batch of 24 bottles
3) White and Red Wine: Will your wedding be outside in the summer? Will it be during the day? People tend to drink more white wine in these situations. Or will your wedding be inside at night? Will you be serving steak at dinner? If so, more red wine will be downed. For generalization, let’s assume that people will consume the same amount of white and red wine, which is often a safe bet. I’m also assuming you’ll be offering beer and liquor too. Consider your unique wedding situation to alter the counts below if necessary.
Assume 1 glass of wine per hour per guest. Each 750ml bottle has ~5 glasses
So for 100 guests and a 4 hour wedding reception, the calculation would be:
70 guests x 4 hours x 1 glass/hour = 280 glasses
280 glasses / 5 glasses per bottle = 56 bottles of wine
56/2 = 28 bottles of white and 28 bottles of red
Red and white wine at Urban Vintner come in batches of 30 bottles.
Now that you know how much wine you need to buy, the next step is to select which wines to buy…one of my favorite activities!
If you come into the store I’ll give you tips for finding the perfect wedding wine.
Cheers!
