Buying wine in serious quantity (quantity question)

We're going to be providing our own wine for our wedding reception for 150-175 people. I'm trying to figure out how much we need. Now our folks tend to be a little heavy on the wine, but they'll also have an open bar before and after dinner. Am I right in guessing 2-3 glasses per person during dinner + 1 glass of sparkling for the toast? The ideal is to be able to pair wines, but frankly it ain't gonna happen. I doubt we're going to be able to do wine service the way we would if it was for the 100 we originally planned.

We're also in the planning stages of buying wine for our wedding.

One recommendation is to buy from Sam's, who allow you to return unopened bottles for a nominal restocking fee (10% of the purchase price, I believe).

As a datapoint, I was sommelier for my brother's wedding last year. As a destination wedding, there were only about 80, which included a fair number of kids and teens. And it was a buffet, so there was no wine service. We agreed on four cases of reds (a cab, merlot, pinot noir, and an Italian blend), three of whites (chard, sav blanc, and Vourvray), and two sparkling. We had approximately two mixed cases of still wines left over, and one of the sparkler. All were purchased at Binny's, with a decent discount (forgot the %age) based on quantity and the number of points I had on my Binny's Frequent Drinkers Card.

Sadly, I had to take the leftovers home and consume them over a period of months.

I think your 2-3 glasses of wine + sparker toast is a touch high for an average. I'd plan on 1.5 glasses per adult during meal service.

I'd plan on 6 bottles of wine for each 20 adults.
then I'd add a case of wine for every 70 people as back up.
Keep the extras and have a bottle every (week, month)
over the first year of marriage as sort of a mini anniversary.


As far as a sparkling wine toast, my 20 years of going to or working weddings tell me that 90% of the sparkling wine toast drinks end up sitting on the table.
While the idea of it sounds good it just does not work in practice.
If it is to happen near the end of the dinner service and the wait staff has
to deliver the glasses, it's going to mess up the clearing of the plates and
then the staff will be clearing (and making a racket) while the toasts are going on. If it's at the beginning of the meal, you'll have warm wine on the table.
My suggestion is to do the toasts with the drinks everyone has from the meal and put the $$$ you would have spent on the sparkler
back into the bar (via top shelf liquor) or into better wines for dinner service.

Best wishes to you and your bride to be!

mhill95149 wrote:As far as a sparkling wine toast, my 20 years of going to or working weddings tell me that 90% of the sparkling wine toast drinks end up sitting on the table.

We actually realized this and have spent a lot of time auditioning different sparkling wines just for this purpose. I'd say that most people at least take a sip and then put it down- it's rare that they are completely untouched. Thus we've chosen to go with a prosecco rose instead of champagne as from the first taste it keeps you wanting to drink more, especially a it will be with dessert. One of the nice parts of our function is that one of the places we've chosen to spend money is to add servers- each table will be getting 1-1.5 servers, thus clearing should work very very quickly.

Sorry I can't be more specific, but since I'm manager of a wine and liquor shop in the north burbs, I'll have to be somewhat vague.
First of all I think you are right on with your consumption projections. I recommend appx. 1/2 bottle ( 2-3 ) glasses per person, and 1 bottle for every 6 guests for the champagne toast. Plus a little something special for the head table, of course!
Any shop worth patronizing will gladly take back all resalable merchandise with absolutely no restocking charge!
We are now into wine tasting season and it's a great time to sample for free wines of all prices and styles from all over the world. Plus, when you buy at a tasting, there's usually a substantial discount involved. For example at our tasting this weekend we will be pouring around 100 wines which retail for between $8.00 and $110.00 a bottle. They will be discounted 15-20%, plus an extra 5% on case lots. The first Saturday in December we have another tasting devoted to sparkling wine and Champagne, with half the selection but the same discount schedule.
One of two other points:
1) peruse the food section of the Trib and SunTimes on Wed's; find out for yourself who has the best prices on wine, liquor and beer. Buy what you want that week and mark it off your wish list.
2) If feasible, buy outside of Cook County: No City excise tax, No Cook County excise tax, 6 1/2 % sales tax (at least in my part of Lake County).
Happy hunting and mazel tov to the bride and groom!

john@thebar wrote:Sorry I can't be more specific, but since I'm manager of a wine and liquor shop in the north burbs, I'll have to be somewhat vague.
First of all I think you are right on with your consumption projections. I recommend appx. 1/2 bottle ( 2-3 ) glasses per person, and 1 bottle for every 6 guests for the champagne toast. Plus a little something special for the head table, of course!
Any shop worth patronizing will gladly take back all resalable merchandise with absolutely no restocking charge!
We are now into wine tasting season and it's a great time to sample for free wines of all prices and styles from all over the world. Plus, when you buy at a tasting, there's usually a substantial discount involved. For example at our tasting this weekend we will be pouring around 100 wines which retail for between $8.00 and $110.00 a bottle. They will be discounted 15-20%, plus an extra 5% on case lots. The first Saturday in December we have another tasting devoted to sparkling wine and Champagne, with half the selection but the same discount schedule.
One of two other points:
1) peruse the food section of the Trib and SunTimes on Wed's; find out for yourself who has the best prices on wine, liquor and beer. Buy what you want that week and mark it off your wish list.
2) If feasible, buy outside of Cook County: No City excise tax, No Cook County excise tax, 6 1/2 % sales tax (at least in my part of Lake County).
Happy hunting and mazel tov to the bride and groom!

Thanks! I think we'll be doing a lot of our buying from up in Palatine by the bride's mother's house. Larry at The Wine Cellar tends to have really nice prices and we figure with buying in cases he'll be more than happy to have our business.

Depending on the price, I think we're looking at the La Slina Dolcetto (inexpensive and so wonderful) and we still aren't sure about the white. We may still offer a rose, though we're going to toast with a prosecco rose for sure. Can you tell we lean Italian in our tastes?

Larry at the Wine Cellar IS great

He does a really top-notch job of matching food and wine, though he and I like wildly different styles of California Chardonnay (we've agreed to disagree)

I know a guy out in Geneva, IL that will do a good job for you. Bob Kovacs at the Wine Seller in Geneva. He has a whole back room dedicated to good wine under 12 bucks.

I just got a card for Schaefer's annual warehouse wine sale. The sale is February 19 & 20. Is it too soon to buy for a party in September? Where should I keep all this booze? The event is for 100 (probably less) so 2 cases should be plenty with beer and spirits available, yes?

I want Riesling, if it's available, and another light but drier wine, if that helps.

Thanks!

Save your $$ and buy closer to your event.