How much Wine to Serve for the Holidays

 

Hosting a holiday gathering at your place? Be sure you have enough wine for your guests. Unsure how much wine you need for an event? Don't worry! 

When planning all you need to know is how you plan on serving your wine, how many guests will be drinking, and how long your guests will be there. Think about:

How long will your guests be over? Assume each guest drinks about two glasses of wine every two hours.

How many guests will be drinking? Each standard 750-ml wine bottle is roughly four servings of wine (assuming a six ounce pour).  A magnum bottle (1.5 liters) has eight to twelve glasses of wine (assuming four to six ounce pours).

 

 

For a twelve-person dinner for Thanksgiving, with guests arriving around 5pm and dinner at 6pm, assuming all guests are over 21 and will be enjoying wine, plan on consuming six bottles. Over the course of five hours, twelve guests will drink two glasses of wine very two hours, a total of 30 glasses or eight bottles.

Are you pairing wines with individual courses? If you’re pairing wines with individual courses, you’ll need more bottles to ensure that everyone gets enough. The exact number of bottles you need depends on whether guests are drinking full glasses (four to six ounces) or tasting pours (two ounces).

If you’re serving tasting pours at your twelve-person dinner, you’ll want two bottles of each wine for every course you’re serving. To ensure you don’t run out wine over the course of five hours at a three-course meal, plan on eight bottles of wine. For full glasses, you’ll want three bottles of each wine for every course you’re serving; in this example eleven bottles of wine.

 

 

Shipping Deadlines for Holiday Wines

When planning your Christmas and New Year’s celebrations keep these dates in mind to ensure your wine cellar is well stocked:

• Order by Sunday December 7th to get wines in time for Chanukah.
• Order by Sunday December 14th for Christmas.
• Order by Sunday December 21st to get wines in time for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

Remember that when you order 12 or more bottles of Cultivar Wine you receive a 15% discount, so for your twelve person dinner, why not make it a case?

If you’re a member of the Cultivar Wine Club you receive a 20% discount on all Cultivar wine and Cultivar products. Our olive oils, balsamic vinegars, and honey make perfect hostess gifts.

Our Favorite Thanksgiving Wine Pairings

 

This year has flown by! We’re excited that harvest is over, and we're looking forward to gathering with our family and friends to give thanks.

As you get ready to join your family and friends around the table, we wanted to share some of our favorite red wine pairings for smoked turkey. (Come back next Wednesday for tips on how much wine to have on hand!)

 

 

Cultivar Oak Knoll District Cabernet Franc

2012 Cultivar Oak Knoll District Cabernet Franc, with its sweet black cherry, plum, and blueberries with hints of vanilla and Asian spices, will leave your guests talking when you serve it up with either a curried pumpkin or sweet potato soup as your first course. 

Or be a little daring and pair it with dessert. May we recommend a pecan pie or a rich pumpkin pie? 

2012 Cultivar Oak Knoll District Cabernet Franc: Case $530 / $500 Wine Club

 

Cultivar Phoenix Ranch Syrah

2011 Cultivar Phoenix Ranch Syrah, with its blueberry, black currant, and plum fruit, offers the perfect counterpoint to a smoked jalapeño turkey.

We especially love it with mushroom and sausage stuffing. 

2011 Cultivar Phoenix Ranch Syrah: Case $571 / $537 Wine Club

 

 

Cultivar Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

2012 Cultivar Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, with its ripe black currant, plum, and dark cherry with a hint of vanilla, violets, and warm spices, softens the tartness in some cranberry sauces.

Tired of canned cranberry sauce? Try your hand at a Cabernet-cranberry sauce with figs. Your guests will thank you. 

2012 Cultivar Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon: Case $286 / $269 Wine Club

Cultivar Sauvignon Blanc Wins Gold Medal

We’re excited to announce that our 2013 Cultivar Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc was recently awarded a Gold medal from The Fifty Best and thrilled to see Sauvignon Blanc returning to the spotlight.

TheFiftyBest.com is an award-winning online guide to fine living, featuring rated listings from unbiased surveys and proprietary tastings judged by wine/spirits journalists, wine/spirits professionals, sommeliers, retailers, restaurateurs, and connoisseurs.

For this tasting of recent release California Sauvignon Blancs, they assembled a pre-qualified panel of judges. Judges blind-tasted the wines and rated them individually on a 1-5 point scoring system, with 5 being the best. After tallying the scores, The Fifty Best awarded medals based on the judges' impressions.

2013 Cultivar Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc Tasting Notes

We crafted our 2013 Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc to be approachable and the perfect treat after a hard day. The grapes we selected for our 2013 Sauvignon Blanc and Musque clone come from three vineyards, two in St. Helena and one in Napa. This mix of grapes creates a crisp, refreshing wine with peach and nectarine on the tongue with just a hint of the grassy notes Sauvignon Blanc is famous for.
 

Individual bottles are $20 (Case Price $204 / Cultivar Wine Club $192). Cultivar Wine Club members enjoy 20% off. If you're not yet in our club, learn more about the benefits of membership.

Order your Sauvignon Blanc now. 

Pairing Sauvignon Blanc with Food

Wondering what to pair Sauvignon Blanc with? Check out our tips for crafting the perfect seasonal cheese, salami, and apple platter. Sauvignon Blanc also pairs beautifully with turkey and sweet potatoes and would make a great addition to your Thanksgiving celebration.

To ensure your wine arrives in time for Thanksgiving, place your order no later than Friday, November 14. 

Pairing Sauvignon Blanc: The Perfect Accompaniment to Cheese, Salami, and Apples

The secret to a perfect pairing is balance, not just of flavors, but of texture and acid as well. For a perfect cheese and salami platter to serve with your 2013 Cultivar Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, you’re looking for some creaminess and just a hint of sweetness or spice. You want to select foods that will complement or amplify the notes in your wine and not overpower it.
 
Because Sauvignon Blanc has grassy notes, it’s a great wine to pair with goat’s and sheep’s milk cheeses. Cow’s milk cheeses are trickier to pair with Sauvignon Blanc as they are fairly acidic. You want to select a mix of unaged cheeses with light flavor, such as Idiazabal Raw Sheep Milk Cheese, Petite Basque Sheep’s Milk Cheese, and Goat Milk Cheddar Cheese.

 
For that hint of sweetness, choose in season apples that are a little more tart and have a bit of crunch, like Fuji or Gold Rush. Chili-dusted candied pecans are also delicious, delivering both sweetness and spice.
 
Similar to cow’s milk cheeses, salami can be challenging to pair with Sauvignon Blanc. Look for meats that are lower in salt and milder in flavor, such as Olli Organic Norcino Salami or have a little kick, such as Fra Mani Salametto Piccante.

Bon Appetit!