20 guests · seated meal
How many bottles of wine for 20 guests?
For twenty people at the table, count 8 bottles without a margin, 12 once rounded up to the case. It's a dinner, not an event: the calculator below will tell you so itself, and send you to your local wine shop.
The calculation for 20 guests
Set for a seated meal, 80% adults who drink. Tick the aperitif if you're serving one, lower the share of drinkers if there are children at the table.
Four tables of twenty, four figures
Orders of magnitude; the calculator gives the exact figure. “Not rounded” is the expected consumption; “in cases” adds the 10% margin then rounds each colour up to the case of 6, which weighs heavily at this volume.
| Setup | Not rounded | In cases | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meal only, 80% drinkers | 8 | 12 | 6 red, 6 white. One case of each. |
| Meal only, 60% drinkers | 6 | 12 | Same rounding: you can't split a case. |
| One-hour aperitif + meal | 13 | 24 | Red, white, rosé, sparkling: four cases, each half used. |
| Two-hour aperitif + meal | 16 | 24 | The same rounding absorbs the extra hour. |
For twenty people, rounding to the case almost doubles the figure. That's the sign you're in the wrong place: a wine shop sells by the bottle.
The meal: one bottle for two, and that's it
At a seated dinner, a guest who drinks wine has three glasses: a white with the starter, two reds with the main and the cheese. At six glasses per bottle, that makes one bottle for two drinkers. Twenty guests, sixteen who drink, eight bottles. Five red, three white, no rosé, no sparkling unless you're celebrating something.
This figure is stable. It doesn't move with the quality of the wine, only a little with the length of the meal, a lot with the share of drinkers. A table of twenty with four children and two drivers drops to twelve drinkers and six bottles. Count the people before counting the bottles.
You don't need us. Twelve bottles is a trip to the local wine shop, which will sell them to you singly, let you taste, and advise you better than a form. A wine merchant becomes useful from about twenty bottles, when volume pricing and delivery make up for the trip. Below that, making the trip is the right choice.
How many bottles of wine for 20 people at a meal?
Eight bottles without a margin, ten with a safety margin, twelve if you buy by cases of six. Five to six red, three to six white. The calculation assumes 80% of guests drink wine; with children at the table, count fewer.
Should you plan sparkling for 20 people?
Only if there's something to celebrate. Two bottles are enough for a toast, one flute each. If the aperitif lasts an hour, count rather three bottles of sparkling and two of white, and look at the 30 guests page, which covers the aperitif in detail.
And if the 20 people become 50?
The calculation changes in nature: four colours, an aperitif, perhaps a party, and a volume where the case becomes the natural unit. The 50 guests page does that calculation, and there, a quote starts to make sense.
One bottle to give rather than twenty for the table?
Often the real question behind “how many bottles for 20 people” is the family meal where you want one fine bottle in the middle, not ten average ones. The which wine to give page helps you choose that one.
The costly mistakes, even for twenty
- Buying four colours. For twenty, that's four cases opened and two left over. Red and white, full stop.
- Counting the children. They're in the twenty, not among the drinkers. The “share who drink wine” field is there for that.
- Paying for delivery on twelve bottles. It costs more than the price difference with the wine shop.
The general calculator does the same calculation for any number of guests and any kind of day.