Who doesn’t love a party? While enjoying a party is easy (you just show up, eat, drink, and be merry), organizing a party is a whole different beast entirely. From choosing the right venue to selecting the perfect collection of wines, hosting a party – whether small or large – is definitely not one for the fainthearted. Indeed, one of the most challenging aspects of organizing a party is the aspect of wine selection. Choosing the right kinds of wines for an event of any magnitude can seem really daunting. Not only would you have to guess the tastes of your guests correctly, but you also have to ensure that you have enough in your stock to last the night. That said, here are some tips to help you organize your party and choose the right wines.
Step 1: Understand your audience
First and foremost, you need to understand the kinds of people you are expecting at your party. For a fact, we all know that not everyone drinks wine, which means that the total number of wine drinkers at any event will most likely be distinct from and fewer than the total number of people at the party.
- If you plan on serving spirits and beer, then, it is safe to assume that approximately 50% of your guests will opt for wine
- If you won’t serve spirits but will serve beer, you can increase your expected number to 60%
- A quick tip: how many wine drinkers did you calculate? Pen that number down; you will need it for subsequent steps.
Step 2: Apply the average alcohol intake rule
Some of us are well aware of the popular rule of thumb, which states that two-drinks-per-person-per-hour. Well, if there was ever a time to adopt this rule, your wine selection moment would be a perfect time. According to this rule, each guest will take at least two alcoholic drinks per hour. Now multiply the total number of wine drinkers (from step 1) by two to determine how many glasses of wine your guests will be consuming per hour.
Step 3: Know the duration of your event
For this step, you are going to determine how long your party might take. You can measure this in hours. In other words, you are to determine the expected number of hours between the first guest’s arrival and the last guest’s departure. If you don’t really trust your instinct, you can raise this number higher – it is much better to over-prepare for an event than to be under-prepared. This is a very crucial step because, as the host, you really wouldn’t have the time running errands or attending to impromptus. For instance, we know from experience that most get-togethers often get rounded up within three to four hours or five hours at most. And we also know that daytime events tend to conclude quicker than their evening or nighttime counterparts. You can always use this as a baseline if you don’t really know how long your event might take.
Step 4: Know how many glasses are contained in a bottle of wine
Depending on your serving capacity, a typical 750 ml wine bottle will ultimately pour out five full bottles. Round up to whole bottles if extra glasses are left over after calculation. For instance, from the above calculation, we know that eight glasses of wine would require 1.6 bottles of wine to pour, but since wine bottles are not sold in fraction, it means that two bottles are needed.
Step 5: Split your red and white wine using the 60/40 rule of thumb
It is always a good practice to buy both red and white wine when stocking up for an event. But if you don’t really know how many bottles to bring to the party, you can use the 60/40 rule.
- For daytime parties held in warm or hot weather, 60% white wine is preferable along with 40% red.
- For evening parties (usually later than 5 o’clock) held in cooler temperature, you can go for 405 white and 60% red.
Step 6: Never forget a sparkling option
Contrary to popular opinion, fizzy wines like Sparkling Rose wine isn’t meant for wedding toasts and New Year’s day only, but also for other gatherings and events. Sparkling wines are known to transform any and every party into a celebration zone. And trust me, your guests are surely going to love the unexpected treat.
Uday Tank has been working with writing challenged clients for several years. His educational background in family science and journalism has given him a broad base from which to approach many topics. He especially enjoys writing content after researching and analyzing different resources whether they are books, articles or online stuff.
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