How to calculate amount of wine for your meeting?

Calculating the amount of drinks needed at a party, and by extension the budget, is not easy an easy task, because it depends on several aspects difficult to predict, such as temperature, duration, average age, and others.  However, it be, these "rules" will help you do the math.

So, to avoid some uncomfortable moment where a good celebration loses all its magic in less than a minute, keep in mind the tools we’re sharing with you, so you know which type of wine you must choose and how to calculate the amount needed according to the occasion. We guarantee that you won’t have any regrets after that party is done.

So, in what meetings you should use which wines?

For a lunch

At noon and a little before afternoon it’s a versatile moment that lends itself to choosing between different types of liquors.

The ideal ones before lunch will be those known as aperitifs; diluted and generally bitter drinks, since they stimuli appetite, they come in handy.

During lunch:  It is certainly known that a good wine with a good pairing, can create wonderful flavors, for this reason, we highly recommend to choose a good complement. For red meats suck steak, any red wine is ideal, on the other hand, for seafood white wines are the choice.

Sweet wines as a late harvest: Muscat, port, sweet sherry.

For a dinner

When the night falls it’s usual to have a good variety of liquors that suit both, your celebration and the discreet that the night provides to events and meetings.

Similar to lunch, you can select drinks as an appetizer before the main meal and other liquors to drink after everyone have eaten. Allowing all the attendees to enjoy the meeting in and more euphoric way. By the way, we recommend the following wines:

Before dinner: Young rosé and red wines

After dinner: Depending on the dish that people recently ate, it can be offered either a white or red wine

Types of drinks

There are generally two types of drinks, long and short, the latter are better known as shots, and are those that are taken in a single sip as opposed to long drinks that must be enjoyed over a longer period of time.

For an event as a general rule you can guess that the average person takes a long drink every hour or 3 short drinks every hour. However, as is to be expected, some people will drink a little faster while others will drink slower.

On the other hand, wines and sparkling wines are considered long drinks in the calculations and beer depends on the region you are, as well as the type of celebration.

Let's start checking how many drinks come out of a 750 ml bottle, the standard of wine bottles.

Wine bottles:

For wines, there is an additional variation that is given by the size of the glasses, remember that the wine glasses are not filled in their entirety because only one third of the glass should be served in the case of reds, white or rosé and in some cases it is recommended that, in order to keep a low temperature, less quantity must be served in the glass, but with shorter intervals of time.

The first thing that we must know is how many glasses come out of a standard bottle of wine equivalent to 750 ml.

Bottle of red and white wine: Contains 5 GLASSES. It is served around 150 ml per glass.

Sparkling wine bottle: Contains 6 CUPS. It is served about 125 ml per glass. In the case of sparkling wines, the glass is served 3/4 high.

Estimated calculations for drinks at a party or gathering

Non-alcoholic drinks (water, sodas, juices): In short events, up to 5 hours of duration, it is calculated 650ml per person.

In long events, 8 hours. (such as a wedding or a 15th birthday), 1 liter per person is calculated.

If the event takes place during the day, in hot weather, or with a majority of guests between 25 - 35 years old, it is advisable to add a few more bottles.

Wines

In short events, it is estimated that men drink approximately 300cc and women 200cc. Which is around one bottle for every 4 people. In long events and / or formal dinners, a bottle is calculated for every 2 or 3 adults.

If the main meal of your event is a barbecue, we suggest increasing the proportion of red wine, as this accompanies the main meal (really good by the way). If the event is outdoors and / or if there is an entrance for cheeses, we suggest adding some bottles of white wine for fabulous pairings

Sparkling

 If only champagne is going to be served on the event, then you should know that one bottle equals to around 7 or 8 glasses (depending on the style of the glass).

Other drinks of interest

In case you’re planning to do a party or event with several kinds of alcohol, not just wine, then we can help you too! At least a little. We’re going to share a pretty short list of other bottles and its measure in cups…

Measured drinks per bottle.

1 bottle of Whiskey equals 18 drinks.

1 bottle of Gin 18 shots.

1 bottle of Vodka or Rum 18 drinks.

Calculation by formula

When the service is by glass, the amount of drink you need can be obtained with a simple formula: 5 x the number of guests = the total, divided by 18 and that equals to the number of 750 ml bottles that you need (roughly).

A good tip for making the calculation

When it comes to table, it is necessary to consider on average 2 to 3 glasses per person. In some European countries, the consumption of red wine predominates, although it depends as well on the food that will accompany, as well as the time of the year

Final thoughts

Within the economic possibilities that we may have, we can buy between 5% to 10% more bottles of the products that we will use: it is useful for any problem or unforeseen event, such as the people that show up at the meeting, an accident with any bottle or in case more is consumed than stipulated. It’s better to have it and not need it than need it and no have it.