Whether or not you’re the useful mother and father of the completely happy couple or the completely happy couple, navigating the place to purchase marriage ceremony wine and the right way to get the most effective offers can seem to be a frightening job.
To assist, the Good Housekeeping Institute has put 4 of the most effective marriage ceremony wine retailers to the check, trialling the service and choosing the right worth bottles from their vary. We’ve additionally tried to reply all the foremost questions you may need, to make sure the celebration goes off and not using a hitch.
How a lot wine do you want for a marriage or celebration?
Firstly, it is best to work out what number of hours you’ll offer drinks for. A superb rule of thumb is to provide one drink per hour, per grownup visitor. Some will drink sooner, and others much less, balancing one another out. Nonetheless, it’s possible you’ll wish to spherical up or down, relying in your company’ urge for food (which you’ll know finest!).
Usually, pink and white wine is equally standard, so we’d break up your order down the center. Nonetheless, do enable for seasonality. Extra company are prone to drink white wine in the midst of a heatwave, and likewise pink would possibly show extra standard in the course of the winter months.
On high of this, it is best to enable for champagne or glowing wine when you’re planning to make a toast, and/or serving it in the course of the marriage ceremony reception earlier than the meal. You get six glasses of glowing wine in a bottle (vs 4 175ml glasses of wine) so you’ll possible want to purchase fewer bottles of bubbly than pink and white wine.
It’s additionally vital to think about these not consuming, whether or not you select to supply delicate drinks, non-alcoholic wine, or mocktails.
How a lot ought to I spend on a bottle of wine for a marriage?
Everybody’s funds is completely different, however whether or not you spend 5 kilos or fifty, it’s vital you stick with the determine as soon as determined, and be sure you think about corkage the place relevant. That mentioned, many retailers supply sale or return — that means you’re in a position to get a full refund on unopened bottles — so that you don’t want to fret about ordering too many and being left with a surplus.
To make your cash go additional, we suggest swerving well-known wine areas akin to Bordeaux or Provence and changing them with underneath the radar options.
For instance, you may substitute champagne with crémant (glowing wine made simply outdoors of the Champagne area), or Spanish cava, which is made in the identical conventional methodology. As a substitute of New Zealand sauvignon blanc, look to South Africa or Chile, and when you adore Italy’s wealthy Amarone, attempt appassito-style wines, the place the grapes are partially dried, replicating that huge, concentrated flavour.
Wedding ceremony meals and wine pairings
Whether or not you’ve serving a standard sit-down dinner, or extra of a relaxed buffet, selecting wine that can go along with every course, and be loved into the night, could be difficult.
Whereas it goes with out saying that the bride and groom ought to get pleasure from what’s chosen, we’d keep away from going for something too “on the market”, or polarising, in a bid to attraction to all. Sauvignon blanc, merlot and unoaked chardonnay are all secure bets and food-friendly, regardless of the season.
How we check marriage ceremony wine
Our panel of WSET-trained specialists sampled 27 bottles of pink, white and glowing wines from 4 of the main marriage ceremony wine retailers. They have been on the lookout for crowd-pleasing, simple consuming types that supplied the most important financial savings and would go along with a spread of dishes.
These are the bottles our specialists suggest for the massive day…
