Purchasing Wine for Parties

Food and Recipes » Beverage Guide » Wine Guide

Purchasing Wine for Parties
By. Ian Love

When you are entertaining, you need to provide more wines than just those that you enjoy. You need to provide a range of wine for every palate when you entertain. You will need to provide white wine even if you prefer red. If all you ever drink is white, you should still provide red for your guests.

Not only should you provide both red and white, you should provide a full spectrum of red and a full spectrum of white. From sweet white wines to bold, dry red wines, you have several varietals from which to choose for every type of red or white wine.

For white wine selections, you will want to be sure to include a dry white selection as well as a fruity white selection. To appease the sweeter palate, you should probably purchase Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc and to appease the more tart palate, you could purchase Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc.

Your red wine selections will be as varied as your white wine selections. For a fruitier palate, you will want to choose lighter reds such as Pinot Noir and for your guests with a palate for tart dry reds; you will want to purchase Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Shiraz or Chianti.

With such a wide variety of wines, you will also need to know how much of each type of wine to serve when you entertain. As a rule, if the majority of your guests were new to wine drinking, you would probably be better off to purchase more sweet or fruity whites and reds and only a few of the drier, tart reds and whites. Conversely, if you are entertaining experienced wine drinkers, you will probably only purchase a few sweet whites and reds and several dry varietals.

Of course, knowing how much wine to purchase overall can be a daunting task. You can never definitely know how much a crowd will drink, but you can make a fair estimation. You know your guests better than anyone does, but most crowds are comprised of non-drinkers, beer drinkers and wine drinkers.

In fact, at most parties, about half of the people in attendance drink wine. These wine drinkers usually have two glasses each, though some people quit with one glass and other people drink three or four glasses. In the end, though, you can count on an average of two glasses per person that is drinking wine.

Because only half of the people at your party will be drinking wine, you can safely say that you need to provide one glass of wine per person who attends. However, if you are like most people, you will prefer to err on the side of over abundance and provide one and a half glasses of wine per person.

When serving wine at parties, you usually serve five 5-ounce glasses from each bottle, so if you are going to have 20 guests, you should count on 30 glasses of wine, which divided by five, is six bottles of wine.

Users Reading this article are also interested in:

Top Searches on Wine Guide:

• Pinot Noir Wine Glasses

• Pinot Grigio White Wine

About The Author, Ian Love

Ian Love is the boss of Australian wine retailer, Liquor Merchants and has been a leader in the Perth Restaurant industry for over 30 years. He also runs a great Australian wine club.

Wine Guide

•	Northern California Wine Tasting Events
•	Best Wine Storage Practices
•	Napa Valley Wine Tours
•	The Language of Wine
•	White Wine Glasses - Unique Wine Gift - Red Wine Glasses 843
•	How to Choose a Bottle of Wine
•	Unique Wine Gift - Wine Gifts - Riedel Wine Glasses 479
•	Riedel Wine Glasses - Wine Accessories - Unique Wine Gift 312
•	Internet Wine Deal
•	Know About How To Make Homemade Wine
•	Wine Connoisseurship Revealed
•	Plum Wine Delivers A Delicious Taste
•	Napa Valley Wine Tour: World Class Wines At Your Fingertips
•	Pouring The Perfect Wine Glass 101
•	Nutritious, Delicious Wine Country Cooking
•	Holiday Dining & Wine-pairing Tips
•	Eggnog, Wassail, Hot Wine -- Oh My!
•	Wine Gift Basket - Use Your Creativity To Express Your Feelings
•	A 2007 Beaujolas-Villages Nouveau
	» More on Wine Guide

FoodEditorials Beverages Guide has useful information on all sorts of Beverages from Coffee & Teas to Alcoholic Drinks such as Beer and Wine. Also get tips on how to create fancy and creative Cocktails & Mocktails which will make you the life of every party!

Need faster Access? Try our Local Hosting Sites

Asia : Singapore - Malaysia - Indonesia | America : USA