How do I know how much wine to purchase for a reception?

I'm buying wine for a large party this summer. I'm buying three or different reds and three or four different whites and buying 1 bottle per person. I understand this more than will likely be needed, but bottles will be opened as required and the leftover unopened bottles will go into the cellar.

It depends on several things. Will there be food served too, how long do you expect the reception to last, etc.

If you are not expecting these folks to be really "into" wine, and there will be something to nosh on, then you can generally assume that 2 glasses per person is plenty but have something ready (since you don't have to open it unless needed) just in case it isn't. I wouldn't expect that you would open enought for three glasses per person, remember, not everyone will drink that many and some will drink more. This is a reception, not a frat party.

Are there receptions without food?

Hi, the people selling the wine can help you, I would say 3 bottles per table of 8 is a good figure, maybe 4. Ive been to weddings where there was drinking going on while the wedding was going on, all sitting at tables, ive never been to a wedding without food at the reception. Use your imagination. Go get some tacos.

A bottle per 3 people is what I would do. You could probably get away with a bottle per every 4 but as Board-o said, you can always put the extra in your cellar.

BizHunter,

Find a wine store that will let you bring back un-opened wine. This is illegal in many places but there is usually a way to bend that rule.

Is liquor being served too?

I always have the most trouble trying to figure out how much bottled water, beer and soft drinks are needed.

like Davidn asked... will there be liquor or beer? when I was planning my reception that made a big difference as there were some groups that would likely gravitate towards liquor and others toward beer (both were cheaper than the wine choices. depends too if you are allowed to bring your own wine (more economical) or if you have to source it from the venue (as we did).

We upped the quality of the liquor and beer to whatever was top line, bass, harp, Newcastle, etc. because we knew that with those choices there was a large number that would happily be all over that. They might have had wine if we had bare bones beer, but the expensive beer was cheaper than the affordable (and definitely not wino quality) wine.

Everyone was happy and we didn't have to serve an unnecessary amount of relatively expensive (compared to the beer and liquor) "eh" wine to people.