Evening party · open bar · hour by hour
Open bar: how many bottles of wine do you need?
After a dinner, one glass in the first hour, then half a glass an hour: a hundred guests, four hours of bar, comes to around forty bottles. Without a dinner first, almost twice as many. The calculation below follows your evening hour by hour and says what the extra hour costs.
The calculation, hour by hour
Set for a hundred guests, after dinner, from 10 pm to 2 am. Only wine is counted; soft drinks and water are at the bottom of the result.
When to close the wine bar
After a dinner
Guests leave the table with three glasses of wine inside them. At the bar, they take a flute on their way to the dance floor, then half a glass an hour. After midnight, they ask for water, whatever they say.
Without a dinner
An evening that starts at the bar drinks like a cocktail reception: two glasses in the first hour, one an hour after that. Provide food, or the bar will close early of its own accord.
The last hour
Close the wine an hour before the end of the evening, and keep the water, soft drinks and coffee going. It's the hour when people drink least and get back behind the wheel. The calculation says how many bottles it costs.
Free or paid
An open bar offered free to your guests needs nothing. As soon as drinks are sold, even at cost, or included in a paid entry ticket, you need a permit: see temporary bar licence.
Who is driving home, and how to find out beforehand: the wine and drivers page counts the drivers, the breathalysers and the soft drinks.
What goes on the bar
- Champagne and rosé, mostly. Those are the two wines people drink standing up and dancing. Red, after a dinner that served it, stays in the cases; only put it on the bar if the dinner was served with white.
- A dry white for those who don't like sparkling. One bottle open at a time is enough: it goes more slowly than the rosé.
- Rosé and white in bag-in-box, why not. At the bar, nobody sees the label, the wine stays cool for longer and nothing is wasted at the end of the evening. The bag-in-box or bottle page compares the two.
- Ice tubs, not the fridge. A bar for a hundred guests empties six bottles of champagne in ten minutes when it opens. The ice count is on chilling 50 bottles.
- Spare glasses. At the bar, a glass put down is a glass lost: allow one and a half flutes per guest. See how many glasses per person.
The wine for dinner is counted table by table: how many bottles per table. The whole day at once, drinks reception, meal and party: the quantity calculator.
How many bottles for an open bar for 100 people?
After a dinner, from 10 pm to 2 am, with eighty drinkers: about forty bottles, champagne and rosé, that is 24 champagne and 18 rosé rounded up to the case. Without a dinner first, from 7 pm to midnight, allow more like 90 bottles.
How many glasses per person at an open bar?
After a dinner, one glass in the first hour and half a glass an hour after that: two and a half glasses over four hours. Without a dinner, two glasses in the first hour and one an hour: six glasses over five hours, or one bottle per drinker.
What time should the open bar close?
An hour before the end of the evening for the wine, keeping the water, soft drinks and coffee going. For a hundred guests after a dinner, closing at 1 am instead of 2 am means twelve fewer bottles.
Do you need a licence for an open bar?
Not if the drinks are offered free to your guests. If they're sold, even at cost, or included in a paid entry ticket, you need a temporary bar permit (autorisation de buvette temporaire), applied for at the town hall: see temporary bar licence.