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Chit Chat
novella1186
member
Where are my wine pros?
in Chit Chat
I just got the bar info from our liquor supplier for the wedding. I hate the wines he recommended. Hate. Hate. One more time for good measure: Hate. He's a little slow to respond to e-mails and he's too far away for me to meet him in person. I don't really feel like giving him a call cuz there's not really a quiet/private place to talk around my office. So I wanted to e-mail him back with some of my own wine suggestions to get the ball rolling on what we want to actually order. (This is all just preliminary stuff)
I don't need brands (yet). Just types.
If we do 4 different kinds, I was thinking:
Pinot Noir
Cabernet
Chardonnay
Pinot Grigio
If we did three I think I would drop the Chardonnay based on what my "white drinkers" have said. If I did 2 I would probably drop the Pinot Noir. But is this good? Does that give a good range, or should I consider different types? The people I know well enough to know what kind of wine they do and don't drink would be covered by these, but what about the rest of the crowd? Would one of these types be good for them? Or is there a different one that's really common/popular that I've left out? Should I include a lighter red and a sweet white? What do you guys most commonly drink?
TIA!
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Re: Where are my wine pros?
You can get dry Riesling that is not sweet at all. It all depends on the RS rating (residual sugar) and the brand. Look for labels that specifically say dry Riesling. Anything that's semi-dry will be sweeter.
My recommendation would be to keep all four, but if you have to limit, then go with the pinot grigio, the cab, and put in a sweeter wine. I didn't include a sweet wine on the list for my venue (a winery) but the coordinator included one anyway. I'm SO happy he made the executive decision to do that because it ended up being the most popular wine of the evening. Even people who didn't normally drink wine loved it. It was a loganberry wine that they make and was a huge hit.
I wanted to give a word of caution on the Pinot Noir though - while a good Pinot Noir is a wonderful, delicate option of a red, lots of inexpensive ones are just not good. Pinot Noir is a finicky grape to grow and I can't think of any under $30 I'll drink (and I'm not a snob - there are plenty of $10 wines I enjoy.) For that reason I'd be very hesitant to choose it for a group unless I had the budget for a decent one.
The thing about cab sauv, too, is that while it's popular it is a big, oaky wine so it wouldn't be the only red I serve either as it can be off-putting for some people. If I'm trying to please a crowd I like to choose something like a Valpolicella (light to medium bodied) and a Syrah/Shiraz (full bodied and fruit-forward, not heavily oaked). GSM (Grenache/Syrah/Mourvèdre) is another great choice for crowd-pleasing red and has lots of reasonably priced ones. I might also consider a South American red like Malbec (waning a bit in popularity though) or Carmenere.
I'm seconding everything @lacqueredlover and @amelisha said.
If it were me and I were doing 4 wines it would be:
Pinot Grigio
Sauvignon Blanc
Cab Sauvignon
Red Blend like the GSM...I loooovveeee blended reds
For the whites if you really want something sweeter and off dry I also love the Gerwurztraminer suggestion! They are fairly inexpensive and I think it would be a crowd pleaser.
(where'd my box go?)
That's true for most people who actually like wine and know anything about it, but in my experience, people who DON'T drink much wine will sometimes still want to drink it at a dinner event and then they want mommy-juicebox wine, with food or not. So if I'm serving a crowd, I do usually include it (but would never make it the only option.) I'd serve it as a third wine with a PG or SB and a Chard, or maaaaybe as a second white with a very crowd-pleasing white as the other if the group was, shall we say, less sophisticated.