Family · baby shower, birth
Wine for a baby shower: a little sparkling, lots of alcohol-free, one bottle for 18 years' time
A baby shower is an afternoon among friends around the mother-to-be, who is not drinking alcohol. Most guests won't drink either: it is afternoon tea, not an aperitif. The calculator is set to 25 guests, 40% drinkers, two hours, mostly sparkling. It gives six bottles, and it says so plainly: for that, you don't need a wine merchant.
The calculation for the afternoon
Set for 25 guests, two hours standing, 40% drinkers. Sparkling makes up 70% of the glasses, a dry white and a rosé the rest, no red with the cakes.
Who drinks at a baby shower
For 25 guests, a typical case. This table is what justifies the 40%, the lowest share on the site.
| Guests | Number | Do they drink wine? |
|---|---|---|
| The mother-to-be | 1 | No. In France, the official advice during pregnancy is zero alcohol; she has her glass, alcohol-free, like everyone else. |
| Friends who are pregnant or breastfeeding | 1 to 3 | No, for the same reason. |
| Guests' children | 3 to 5 | No. |
| Drivers, and those who don't drink at 4 pm | 5 to 7 | No, or one flute for the toast. |
| Friends, sisters, mothers and mothers-in-law | 10 to 12 | Yes, a flute or two. They are the ones the calculator counts. |
Result: 10 drinkers out of 25, three glasses each over two hours, 30 glasses: 5 bottles before rounding. With the 8% margin, the calculator shows 6 bottles by the bottle: 4 sparkling, 1 white, 1 rosé. The rest of the afternoon is alcohol-free, and that is where you should plan generously. The who isn't drinking page counts soft drinks and water guest by guest.
How many bottles for a baby shower of 25 people?
Six: four sparkling, one white, one rosé. Even with 35 guests, the calculation doesn't go above ten bottles. It is a trip to your local wine shop, not an order from a wine merchant, and the calculator says so in so many words. If you are unsure about the sparkling, the champagne for 20 people page counts the flutes.
What should you serve those who don't drink alcohol?
Something that feels like a celebration: an alcohol-free sparkling drink in a real flute for the toast, so the mother-to-be raises her glass the same way as everyone else. Then juices, lemonade, sparkling water. Fifteen people not drinking wine, three glasses each over two hours: 45 glasses, seven to eight 75 cl bottles of alcohol-free, plus water. That is more than the wine, and that's normal.
Which wine to give the baby on the way?
A bottle from their birth year, to open on their 18th birthday. It is the only purchase of the afternoon that calls for advice: a Bordeaux for laying down, ideally in magnum, lying somewhere cool for eighteen years. The birth wine to keep 18 years page says which wines will last and what they cost today; for the parents, grandparents or colleagues, see birth gift.
Can you give it before the birth?
Not the bottle itself: the child's vintage is not in bottle yet, sometimes not even harvested. You give the promise, a card slipped into the present, and you buy once the year is known, en primeur the following spring or in bottle two years later. And if the year turns out weak, a magnum or a sweet wine is forgiving. The birth-year vintage page shows, year by year, why they are not all equal.
How is it different from a christening?
A christening is a family lunch for 40 people, with grandparents at the table and 60% drinkers: there, the calculation often goes over the threshold. A baby shower is afternoon tea among friends, smaller and far less boozy. The birth bottle, though, is the same in both cases. The christening wine page is set up for the other celebration.
Baby shower mistakes
- Planning wine as for an aperitif. At 4 pm, around a mother-to-be who isn't drinking, nobody gets through a bottle a head. Six are enough for twenty-five.
- Forgetting the alcohol-free toast. If the mother-to-be toasts with a glass of water while the others raise their flutes, the photo is spoilt. An alcohol-free sparkling drink, in the same flute.
- Buying the birth bottle at random. A wine to keep for eighteen years has to be chosen, and it is bought once the year is known, not before.
The wine for the afternoon, your local wine shop has it. The bottle for their 18th, we can look for it with you: quote request, reply within 48 working hours.