Is wine the right choice? Will it be appreciated by the host? If you choose to bring wine: how many bottles of wine should be brought to the host? One? Two? Three?

In our article, we answer these questions.

Should you bring a bottle of wine when you’re invited to dinner?

Is it correct to bring bottles of wine to the host? Should the guest bring bottles of wine to the host?

For wine etiquette you should not bring bottles of wine when you are invited to a dinner!

The reasons are 2:

1. the host should offer food and drink to the guest;
2. Closely related to the first. If you bring a bottle of wine for a dinner, the host should open it. But ... do you know the dishes that will be served? Are you sure that the bottle can be paired with that food? This could cause problems, especially at formal dinners, when you shouldn’t know which dishes will be served.

For these reasons, Wine Etiquette does not advise you to bring food, drinks or wine when you are invited to a dinner.

There are exceptions to these rules. We are talking about the classic dinners or meals with friends or relatives where you already know what you will eat and you can ask to choose and to bring the wine to serve.

In these situations, how many bottles of wine should be brought?

How many bottles of wine should you take to dinner?

Are there no wine lovers? Do not bring any bottles. There are many wine lovers? Pay attention to the number of bottles to bring.

First, you have to consider the number of guests. For example, if the dinner guests are 6, it is better not to bring and put on the table only one bottle. Too little to satisfy their thirst!

Of course, it is not easy to identify the correct number of bottles to bring to a dinner! There are those who argue that a bottle is valid for four diners but these evaluations cannot be precise. They are general and they don't consider the type of meal and the type of drinkers/wine lovers. There is no specific rule based on the number of guests!

There is, instead, a very specific rule on the number of bottles of the same "label" to bring to dinner: wine etiquette says that wine should always be brought to a dinner in pairs, at least two bottles per label.

Why should wine be brought in pairs?

- because the double bottle allows all diners to enjoy the same wine;
- because if the wine is particularly good and pleasant and if the guests are not too numerous, it will be possible to drink a second glass of wine;
- because if the first bottle of wine should have any faults, at least there is the second one ...

In short, to sum up, we can say that the right wine to bring to a dinner is the one that goes well with the courses and that, as far as possible, respects the tastes of the diners (not only yours!). In addition, the number of bottles depends on the number of diners. Of course, for each wine and label you should bring two bottles!