How much wine you need for a party depends entirely on what sort of party it is, and whom you’re inviting. If there are two pregnant women at the table, you can scale the amounts down; same goes for marathon runners with a race the next day. Use common sense to decide how enthusiastic your guests will get over the wine.

The kind of event also helps determine how much. If it’s a casual dinner, with just one main event (a pizza party, or a simple roast chicken dinner), you can figure two to three 4- to 6-ounce glasses per person. If there are up to three courses with different wines, the same applies, only you’ll need fewer bottles of each wine.

Unabashed wine geeks like myself who love to put people through extensive multicourse meals matched with wines often put out a large container of some sort (a wine cooler or a pitcher, for instance) into which people can dump their glasses, so that they don’t feel compelled to finish each glass to get on to the next wine. The thing about wine appreciation, you see, is that you have to be sober to do it.

If you’re going all-out, though, for a 12-course wine-matched meal, you’ll need far less of everything, unless you want your guests to be under the table by dessert. Plan on just 2 to 3 ounces of each wine; it sounds like a little, but it will feel like plenty by course four.

Etiquette

Whatever you do, make your guests feel comfortable. Always offer water, whether they ask for it or not, and have some nonalcoholic options on hand. If someone doesn’t want to drink, don’t make a big deal about it. Offer them something else, and give it to them in a wine glass, so they don’t have to stand around feeling like the odd man out. I do this with children, too: It makes everyone part of the party.

Whenever there are more bottles of wine than there are people, have a receptacle into which they can dump their leftovers—or even spit, if they prefer. It’s not gross; it’s respectable. It’s much better than them getting sick on your carpet, right?

Since you’ve volunteered for the care, feeding, and wining of your guests this evening, make sure they can get home safely, too. If they have to drive, don’t let them get drunk unless you’re ready to have them stay over. Saying no can be really tough, but it’s better than risking the chance of a much worse outcome. Besides, who wants to hang around with a drunk?