Birthday · 18th
Wine for an 18th birthday: the party with friends, and the 2008 bottle
The parents are the ones buying, and they are buying for two audiences. Forty guests, a good half of whom don't drink wine: sparkling, rosé, plenty of soft drinks. And a bottle from the birth year, to open with the family before the friends arrive. 2008 is a stroke of luck: a good year in Bordeaux, still affordable.
The wine for the party
Set for 40 guests, a one-hour aperitif then four hours of party, and 60% wine drinkers: at 18, friends drink something else or don't drink, and there are plenty of drivers.
What the evening gets through
One-hour aperitif
Two glasses per drinker while everyone arrives. Sparkling, white, rosé. For 24 drinkers, eight bottles.
Four hours of party
Sparkling and rosé, served very cold. Young adults drink less wine than you fear and more water than you think: ten bottles for the evening.
Soft drinks
Sixteen guests out of forty won't touch the wine. Allow a litre of soft drinks each, and water for everyone. The page who doesn't drink does that count.
The raw count is 18 bottles; the calculator shows about thirty because it rounds each colour up to a case of 6. Three colours, three cases at least: that is the price of a party where you want choice.
The 2008 bottle
A good year, without the price of the great ones
2008 in Bordeaux suffered a grey summer and was saved by a dry, cool September. The wines are classic, straight, with freshness: not the power of 2009 or 2010, but a balance that makes them drink very well at eighteen. And since the vintage was overshadowed by the two that followed, it has stayed affordable.
For a bottle to open on the day: a Médoc classified growth or a good Saint-Émilion, between €40 and €90 depending on the estate, is at its best now. For a bottle to give and keep: a magnum, which ages more slowly, or a 2008 Sauternes, which will last another twenty years.
Open it with the family, at the meal before the party, with the person receiving it: it is a wine to taste, not to knock back standing among friends. The birth-year vintage page covers every year from 1945 to 2010 and what it is worth today.
2008 bottles in stock
The Transvins price list sorted by year: 2008 bottles first, then neighbouring years when 2008 has few. Tick what you are serving: the list keeps only the wines that go with it. For another year, the birth-year vintage page covers 1945 to 2010.
The years around 2008, in one table
How many bottles for an 18th birthday with 40 guests?
About twenty in the raw count, about thirty rounded up to full cases, a third of them sparkling and a third rosé. Red hardly features: nothing sadder than a case of lukewarm red at the end of a table of young people. The calculator above gives the split for your numbers.
Which wine to serve to 18-year-olds?
Sparkling, a rosé, a dry white, all very cold and unpretentious: Bordeaux rosé or clairet, Entre-deux-Mers, crémant on request or champagne for the toast. Fine wine is for the parents' table, not the dance floor. Keep the good red for the family lunch. The same crowd a few years later: the graduation page does the sums for a garden party, champagne for the toast and a small budget.
What wine budget for an 18th birthday?
€250 to €400 for the party of 40 people at standard to good Bordeaux level, sparkling included, soft drinks and water extra. Add the 2008 bottle: €40 to €90 for a wine that drinks now, more for a magnum to keep. The page which wine to give sorts the ideas by budget.
Should you plan wine for guests under 18?
No. Guests under 18, and there will be some, count as non-drinkers, and the host is responsible for what is served in their home. That is why the calculator is set to 60% drinkers, and why soft drinks are planned as seriously as the wine.
Parents' mistakes
- Buying as if for your own 50th. Half the guests don't drink wine. The “share who drink” field is set to 60% for that reason, and even that is generous.
- Red for the party. It ends up in the garage. Sparkling and rosé, chilled, with ice tubs that keep up with the evening.
- Opening the 2008 standing up, at midnight. That wine is tasted at the table, at 17 °C, with those who know where it comes from.
A different number of guests, a shorter evening? The general calculator does the same sums without presets. Do the figures work? Request a quote, and say in your message if you are looking for a 2008.