Choosing the perfect wines for your special day can be a daunting task and planning the red wine for your wedding reception may require a little more thought than choosing the white wines.
As red wine tends to be bolder in flavour than its white counterparts, you’ll need to consider which red wines will combine well with the food to be served on the big day.
Other things to be taken into consideration include the time of year – a summer wedding may require very different wines than a winter wedding – and even the time of day. Evening wedding receptions typically call for a more free-flowing supply of red wine than morning or afternoon events.
And, of course, there is the all-important cost factor to consider. You’ll want to choose red wines that are likely to be popular with guests at your wedding, but won’t blow your wedding budget sky high.
While it’s common practice to serve glasses of sparkling white wine before the sit-down wedding meal, if you’re having a summer wedding it can make a nice change to serve cups of sangria. This summery blend of red wine and fruit juices is a perfect summer tipple and is also very cost-effective. The sweetness of the drink, combined with the fruit juice, means it’s by no means necessary to serve an expensive wine (in fact, serving high quality wine in sangria would be something of a waste) and mixing the wine with fruit juice and/or lemonade and fruit means a little goes a long way.
For a winter wedding, a very nice alternative is to serve hot steaming mugs of spicy mulled wine. The ultimate winter drink, you’ll benefit from the same cost-saving factors as sangria and your guests will appreciate the warm glow that comes from mulled wine. Serve with a few cinnamon biscuits and there will be smiling faces all round.
Things get a little trickier when it comes to choosing the red wine for the meal itself. First of all, think about the guest list. To the best of your knowledge, are the majority of the guests red wine or white wine drinkers? Many couples simply split the wines 50/50 between red and white, but this often doesn’t work in practice. If a table has a majority of red wine lovers, the guests may find themselves with very little to drink while the white wine-loving minority glug happily away. On the other hand, you don’t want to over-order red wine if the majority prefer white. If you don’t want to have a stack of bottles left over, put your budget to good use and invest in a suitable red/white split.
You’ll also need to put some thought into the food that you’re serving and appropriate wine pairings.
Pairing food and wine is not an exact science and an awful lot of it comes down to personal taste, but if the wedding menu extends to more than a few sandwiches and sausage rolls then you’ll want to serve red wine that will do the food justice. An ever popular red wine choice is Cabernet Sauvignon, but this is quite a bold, ‘bolshy’ wine that can overwhelm certain foods. This wine goes well with red meats and pasta dishes in strongly-flavoured sauces and is a good option to serve with hearty fayre at a winter wedding.
If you’re serving more delicate dishes, you might want to consider a Pinot Noir. Considered to be one of the most versatile red wines around when it comes to food pairings, Pinot Noirs work well with most meat, fish and poultry dishes, as well as with vegetarian options such as pasta in a creamy sauce. Pinot Noir has quite a following, so you can be assured that many of your guests will be fans.
When it comes to your budget, bear in mind that, although you’ll want to serve wine of a decent quality, your guests are likely to have more cause for complaint if the booze supplies run dry than if the wine is not of the highest standard. It makes sense to serve the best bottles at dinner and have some less costly bottles of ‘party plonk’ to serve up later on, when guests are likely to be a little less picky about what they drink!
There are some great deals to be had on bulk buys, with stores such as the British chain Majestic specialisng in multiple-bottle cases. Keeping it safe with popular options such as Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon will guarantee there are plenty of options open to you – whatever your price range.
