Wedding / Wine question

[ellemenohpee]

A second vote for Yellow Tail wines. They are probably my favorite under $10 vintages.

I would guess that the most popular white is chardonnay and the most popular red is cabernet sauvignon. However, I would definitely ask at one of the stores listed above (TJs, World Market, local liquor store) for recommendations. I think if they are doing bottles, they could offer a selection of different whites and reds without breaking the bank.

A salesperson at any of those retail stores will be able to help you plan how many bottles you will need. Some stores will even take back unopened bottles, so make sure they ask about that, as well.

 

[shoney]

I found this link...it helps to estimate the amount you will need....

http://www.evite.com/pages/party/drink-calculator.jsp

 

[Dancind]

Yes, definitely offer a couple of choices on the wine. Moscato is loved by young female drinkers, but that's about it. My DD 21 likes riesling, and I can stomach that. Maybe some Zonin Prosecco if you can find it. It's an excellent sparkling wine that can usually be bought for under $7 a bottle. Look to try some Prosecco and Cremant, cheaper sparkling wines that can be really good.

With chicken and catfish on the menu, you don't really need to offer a red unless you have a family member that drinks only red!

I think it's fine that you are starting now, gives you time to try a few things out!

 

[maelstrom]

Ooh-La-La Pinot Grigio
Yellowtail Pinot Grigio
Yellowtail Chardonnay (we had this at our wedding)
Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc

 

[leight]

No Costco near here either but we do have a Sam's Club. They have a fair selection it's just that I'm not much of a drinker and don't know much about wine.

Penny

At Sam's club I really liked Veo wine- was a nice drinkable red. under $7 a bottle although they probably discount by the case.

At Aldi- I think their Winking Owl Merlot is decent at less than $3- but you would want to have some aerators on the bottles to fully enjoy it.

 

[FormrCastMbr]

I would go to the liquor store and talk to the manager and see if the can recommend some wines. I am not sure about LA, but when I lived in NJ, they also offered case discounts. Now I live in PA and no discounts, I just like to see what the sales are and ratings. A lot of wine stores will have ratings listed.

I really like the following wines:

Cupcake Chardonnay and the Red Velvet
Menage a Trois red table wine
Red Rock Malbec
Kendall Jackson Chardonnay

Any Coppola wines that I have tried, I liked.

Yellow tail is good.

Prosecco varieties are also good for a sparling wine

 

[tink_n_pooh]

Barefoot and Yellow Tail would be my 2 suggestions for a younger crowd drinking wine, both very affordable and easy to drink

 

[shellybaxter]

I agree that Yellow Tail and Barefoot are great. Do you have Grocery Outlet in your area? Our GO has a GREAT wine section. It has different wines, all reasonable and the manager can work with you to get some of them in bulk.

 

[pixiewings71]

Sutter Home wines are very good. They have a wide variety of wines available and I've liked everyone I've tried. I'm not sure what the rules are for shipping wines to your state but it might worth checking their website. I would go with their Sweet White, Sweet Red, Pinot Griogio and Merlot for a variety of tastes, 2 sweet, 2 dry. If your DD likes Moscato she might really like their Bubbly Moscato or Bubbly Pink Moscato, my friends got married in July and they had Bubbly Moscato for the toast, they are very good!

 

[Janepod]

I would find a reputable local wine merchant and talk to them. Explain the situation, ask for some tastings, talk about the menu you're serving to find out what pairs well. They may be able to get you some good deals as well as matching the wines to the foods really nicely.

Also, ask if you can return whatever you don't use.

 

[PatsGirl]

My favorite (must buy alot and accommodate all tastes) wine is Woodbridge and can be had here on sale for $10/large bottle. It sounds like drinking might last about three hours so I'd assume one bottle (small one) per person which is four glasses and then of course buy 20% more than the estimate. I'd also look at chardonnay and pinot noir as possible choices but in the end I'd probably buy just two different whites (chardonnay and reisling), one blush (white zinfandel), and one red (pinot noir). Just my two cents

 

[TinkerBelled]

I would find a reputable local wine merchant and talk to them. Explain the situation, ask for some tastings, talk about the menu you're serving to find out what pairs well. They may be able to get you some good deals as well as matching the wines to the foods really nicely.

Also, ask if you can return whatever you don't use.

I agree entirely with this. You don't know what you'll like or what the prices will be in your area, and a little professional advice is definitely the way to go.

Tastes are going to vary enormously. For example, I can't stand oaked chardonnay, but I know plenty of people who love it. For what it's worth, my go-to red wine is a rioja or beaujolais (one is Spanish, the other French), while my go-to white is usually a sauvignon blanc. And my favorite non-champagne with bubbles are prosecco (I like Enrico Brut) and Freixenet Cordon Brut--both of which are about $10 a bottle.

The number one reason to go to your wine merchant, however, is to see what kind of deals they can do you. We bought all of our own wine for our wedding, and we managed to find $22 reds that had been marked down to $7. You might be able to find some fantastic deals that you wouldn't be anticipating. (The wedding was in PA, which has a state-owned wine system and has regular specials.)

As for numbers, you can generally expect five glasses of wine from a regularly sized bottle. Wedding calculators online (google away) can help you balance between wine and beer drinkers.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I love Chilean wine. They have a brand called Concho y Toro that is very delicious and very affordable.

I would also suggest finding a wine specialty store in a nearby city/town where you can talk to an expert. I have had good luck describing what the meal is going to be and they are usually spot-on pairing the wine for me. Often, if you order a case or more from them you can get a good discount.

For my wedding (keeping in mind I only had 50 guests), we did a 5 course meal. With each course we had a different wine. It was very special to me because each wine was something special to me. I had one from a winery in South Dakota where we met called Prairie Berry Winery. I had another from a winery that I went to on a road trip. They were so sweet, they gave us wine glasses for the wedding.

You could also research wineries in your area and usually you can get a tour a free samples. That way you can find out if you like the wine and would be able to find out the price.

Have fun planning the wedding!!

 

[lucyanna girl]

I have been out today and just got to read all the responses. Thank you all so much! I am bookmarking this so I can refer back to it.

Sounds like we can do it for around ten dollars a bottle and yes, there will be at least three hours of drinking / dancing time. We also plan to serve soft drinks, water, and iced tea for non-drinkers. I'm glad we have time between now and then to try out all the suggestions and research the best place to purchase when the time comes. We are limited in stores here but a two - three hour drive (Shreveport or Baton Rouge) will give us more options.

We want all of the family and friends who honor our daughter and new son-in-law to enjoy themselves and have a wonderful time and still be safe to drive home. I really like the idea of having the off-duty police officers there to keep a check on things and I'm happy they are required by the building owners.

Thanks again. I'm sure we will have many questions before the big day!

Penny

Penny

 

[ElizabethB]

For a nice and reasonably priced red I would serve either Penfold's Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet blend or a Georges DeBoeuf Beaujolais Villages (2009 vintage if you can get it). Both are very nice, drinkable and enjoyable wines in the neighborhood of $10 per bottle.

As for white, perhaps a Pinot Grigio or Pinot Gris which tend to be lighter than Chardonneys. I would not serve a moscato as the white wine choice as it is a sweet dessert wine. You could offer it with the wedding cake or dessert however.

You might also consider a white sparkling to start as that is pretty traditional at weddings for toasting. Champagnes would be pricey but you could serve either a nice Spanish cava or an Italian prosecco, both of which are more reasonably priced and seem nicer to me than a California sparkling.

 

[Disney Doll]

I forgot about Menage a Trois as a red wine...also good. Barefoot brand wines are good as well, as a PP stated, and they offer whites & reds. The Pinots (grigio & noir) are good, but not everyone likes them. Chardonnay and Cabernet are generally more familiar to most people.

If you live anywhere near New Hampshire, the NH State liquor stores sometimes run some great deals on wines. We were up there in November and they had a case of Smoking Loon for what amounted to $6/bottle and then there was a rebate if you filled out the little card and sent them the receipt which brought it down to $4/bottle.

 

[Nancyg56]

I also agree to avoid sweet wines. I would suggest offering two selections of white and one or two selections of red.
Pinot Grigio is a nice white and not as sweet as some reislings.Reislings are nice summer wines.

For red I like Pinot noir. It is not a robust red so you would be okay if this was the only red offered. I know a lot of people like merlot but I find the less expensive brands can be hit of miss. Chilean Malbec is really nice too and many are reasonable.

I am far from a wine snob and ever buy according to price. One of my favorite brands is Little Penguin. The big bottle is usually under $10.
talk to your wine guy at the package store and ask for suggestions and if there are case discounts.

 

[Kae]

Does your Liquor store offer wine tastings I would maybe try to do some of those. IF they like Moscato then I would do that, & maybe a drier white & a red, maybe a blend. Robert Mondavi has a new lower priced line & we like the Scarlet 5-I think that is the name & it is around $5 a bottle. Also find a store that will give you prices by the case. You could save 10% at least.

Kae

 

[Kae]

Opps one more thing. have you thought about maybe A Sangria, a white sangria sounds like it could work with your menu.

Kae

 

[jlewisinsyr]

In total I would say you are going to need about 100 bottles of wine for 200 guests (plus wedding party) and probably 400 - 500 bottles of beer.

You are going for 4 hours (8:00 - 12:00) which is why the volume is so high. There are a few different formula's for calculating this, but consider a bottle contains 750 ML, each glass is about 5, 5 ounce glasses, so you can get about 5 servings out of a bottle. If 200 people have just one glass of wine that is 40 bottles alone, add a multiplier of 2.5 glasses per person and you get to 100 bottles, compliment this with the beer.

As for the type, I'd do a Shiraz or Cabernet for the red and Chardonnay or Reisling for the white as they are pretty universal and match well. I'd do a split of 40/60 of red to white.