Wedding Cakes & Food Forum

How to Serve Wine/Champagne

We are serving beer, wine, and champagne at our reception. We are responsible for purchasing all the alcohol and icing it down and bringing to the venue. We have hired a bartender through our caterer and they will provide all the bar cups, napkins, supplies, etc. 

I drink beer all the time. Know how to ice it down. Easy. 

Not a big wine drinker. We were planning on doing 3 cases of wine (2 cases of white and 1 case of red). I want to only have 1 choice of red and 1 choice of white so that people don't have too many options and the bar line doesn't get backed up. We are looking at wine that costs about $10/bottle. 

Also not a big champagne drinker but I do like it. We're also looking for about $10-12 per bottle budget here. 

1. Does anyone have any recommendations on what wine and/or champagne we should offer? 

2. Is wine/champagne supposed to be served chilled? How do we chill it? I was thinking maybe have some buckets with ice that the bartender could rotate a few bottles at a time? I know we need to ice the beer down beforehand. Would we need to chill any of the wine/champagne beforehand? 

Re: How to Serve Wine/Champagne

  • Okay so the bucket of ice would be the proper way to chill the wine? 

    We are estimating 175 people. 
  • Ditto STAR on temp and serving. 

    I also agree on the sauv blanc and merlot suggestions. They're both middle of the road, crowd pleaser selections. As far as actual recommendations, I don't have any, but I did find this link that might help you: http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/best-15-dollar-and-under-white-wines Food & Wine is pretty reputable. 

    I also think you'll be hard pressed to find champagne worth drinking under $10. Unless you have a champagne drinking crowd, I'd skip champagne all together. It sounds like you'll have a great selection of other drinks and for toasts people can raise whatever is in their glass. 
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  • Okay so the bucket of ice would be the proper way to chill the wine? 

    We are estimating 175 people. 
    Or a fridge. 

    I think for the number of people you need dramatically more wine. I'd do a minimum of 8 cases, and personally would have at least 12 (assuming we are talking 12 bottle cases). 

    https://apracticalwedding.com/how-to-buy-alcohol-for-your-wedding/
  • Okay so the bucket of ice would be the proper way to chill the wine? 

    We are estimating 175 people. 
    Or a fridge. 

    I think for the number of people you need dramatically more wine. I'd do a minimum of 8 cases, and personally would have at least 12 (assuming we are talking 12 bottle cases). 

    https://apracticalwedding.com/how-to-buy-alcohol-for-your-wedding/
    Well we are having ALOT of beer. Most people we are inviting would prefer beer over wine. For beer we're planning on 3 kegs and 15 cases. 
  • PS- I already know we are overbuying on alcohol. 3 kegs of beer+15 cases of beer+3 cases of wine+champagne is a lot. Before anyone tells me I'm over buying, I just wanted to say that I already know that. We are perfectly fine if we have alcohol left over, but we would be very upset if we ran out. Trust me, any leftovers will not go to waste. 
  • What season is this wedding occurring in?  also, what food will you be serving? 

  • kaos16 said:

    What season is this wedding occurring in?  also, what food will you be serving? 

    Wedding is in early May. Food is BBQ- meat options are pulled pork and chicken tenders. 
  • edited March 2017
    I too would go with prosecco instead of champagne. We have found some nice proseccos at $10-12 a bottle. My husband likes to shop at WTSO.com which a wine clearing site. We always have at least 4 bottles of prosecco in our extra fridge.
  • I'm a red wine lover, so I'll speak to that. I agree a Merlot would be a good choice, or you could offer a Cabernet Sauvignon. Many restaurants/bars that only offer one type of red wine will offer a Cab since it is a pretty popular variety. Merlot is a little sweeter, though. 
  • With BBQ, I would serve a cabernet.

    I would get a lot more wine than you listed. More red than white in my world.

  • If you don't want to run out of anything, you need more wine!
  • If you don't want to run out of anything, you need more wine!
    True. Last night at my house four people went through three bottles of wine. Three cases of wine doesn't seem like enough. 


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  • In early May with BBQ, I would imagine you might go through more red wine than white.  The good news though is that it likely won't spoil if unopened and stored properly.  I'd err on the side of more wine than you think you'll need.  You can drink the extra or have it for gifting when you go to people's homes for dinner.

    I think a cab would be great, prosecco instead of champagne and maybe a light pinot grigio for white, especially if your crowd isn't the wine-snob type.

  • SP29SP29 member
    First Anniversary First Comment First Answer 5 Love Its
    I would suggest pinot grigio for white and cab sauv for red- both pretty "tame" in the middle wines.
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