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How much wine for a party?
Guests, hours, and the share of the room that drinks wine. That is all it takes.
The short version: budget two glasses per wine drinker for the first hour and one an hour after that, and count five glasses to a 750ml bottle. For ten guests over four hours, that is around ten bottles.
People drink faster while a room is filling and slower once food arrives, which is why a flat "one glass an hour" underestimates the start of an evening and overestimates the end.
Published 24 August 2026
8 bottles
40 glasses · 5 each for 8 wine drinkers · 5 glasses per 750ml bottle
Split it roughly 4 white, 4 red and 2 sparkling if you have no idea what the room drinks. Sparkling goes fastest in the first hour, so open it first and keep the reds back.
How to split it
With no information about the room, a 40/40/20 split between white, red and sparkling is a safe default. Sparkling disappears fastest in the first hour because it is what people are handed at the door, so open it first and hold the reds back.
Season shifts it. Summer and standing parties pull toward white, rosé and sparkling; a winter sit-down meal pulls toward red. If the food is decided, let that lead — a room eating steak will drink the red no matter what the calendar says.
What people get wrong
Buying exactly enough. Unopened bottles keep; running out at ten o'clock does not have a fix. Round up, and treat the spare as next weekend's.
Forgetting the non-drinkers and the drivers. The share slider matters more than the guest count — a room where half the guests are on something else changes the number completely.
Chilling too late. A fridge takes around three hours to bring white wine to temperature. Twenty minutes in ice water with salt does the same job if you have run out of time.
Questions people ask
How many bottles of wine for 10 guests?
For a four-hour party with most guests drinking wine, about ten bottles. That is five glasses per bottle and roughly five glasses each across the evening — two in the first hour, one an hour after.
How many glasses are in a bottle of wine?
Five, at a 150ml pour. Restaurants often pour 175ml, which gives about four glasses a bottle, and a tasting pour of 50-75ml gives ten or more.
How much wine per person per hour?
Two glasses in the first hour and one an hour after that is the working assumption here. It reflects how people actually drink at a party rather than an average across the night.
Should I buy more red or white?
Split it evenly if you have no idea, and let the food or the season break the tie. Sparkling goes fastest early, so have more of it than feels necessary for the first hour.
Keep the answers in your pocket.
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