Selecting champagne and wine for your special day

by Polly McGrory

     When you start planning for your wedding, there are so many choices to make, you may feel a bit overwhelmed. From the gown to the bridesmaids’ dresses, you want everything to be perfect. You select just the right food, the ideal music, and on and on. Somewhere, lurking in that endless to-do list is the selection of beverages, with the champagne toast as the highlight. Most often, the champagne is served as people sit down for the wedding banquet, and the toast is proposed before dinner to an attentive audience. Smiles and hugs and kisses, and a few happy tears -- that simple salute to the bride and groom sets the tone for the style of your wedding, and it is wise to give it some thought well in advance of your big day!

     But what if you don’t know anything about champagne, or what wine to serve with dinner? You want to impress your guests, but you also have a budget. Shall it be expensively French? Or will a lovely California vintage do the trick? Here are some suggestions to make your planning effortless ... you might even enjoy looking after this important detail.

There are a variety of beverage options to toast with on your wedding day.

     First decide whether you will want to serve champagne throughout the festivities. Then you can select a champagne or sparkling wine that will fit your budget and please your guests. For a more sophisticated approach, you can serve champagne for the toast, and then choose a fine wine or two to be served for the dinner course. Whether you plan to have a casual, festive party or a more formal reception, there will be a wine that is perfectly suited to the occasion.

     Caterers can often suggest a suitable wine accompaniment, but their selection is limited and not very exciting. You can lend a more personal touch to your wedding by doing a little legwork. When you have your menu planned, the smart thing to do is head to your local wine store. Bring your menu with you. The exciting varieties of wines available from all over the world will dazzle you, and you can choose one or two wines to suit your guests’ tastes. Often, wine sellers will offer a discount for wines bought by the case, and the better ones will even discount the bottle or two that you want to bring home to sample. They will take into account your budget and your personal taste, and they can guide you through the many choices to find what’s exactly right for you.

     Will you have a choice of entrees? Perhaps a seafood selection and a prime rib?

     Then you can serve a crisp, cool California white to complement the seafood. A popular white wine that is a genuine bargain is Salmon Creek, a surprisingly classy Chardonnay from California. It has a lovely flavor and a nice finish, particularly suited for seafood. Until recently, it was only available in hotels, served at banquets, but so many people asked for it that it is now distributed everywhere.

     For the beef entree, pick a nice, fruity red, such as Cape Mentelle, a blend from western Australia. This wine is typical of the more creative approach taken by today’s winemakers in combining different grapes to achieve a uniquely pleasing wine for a good price. Perhaps you will decide on a single entree, a light chef’s concoction of chicken filet. Check out the white wines from Argentina and Chile, or a delightfully dry Gewurtztraminer from Germany.

     Now back to the toast.

     Champagne -- the “Genuine Article” -- has been brewed in the Champagne region of France for a thousand years. Only the distinctive sparkling wine from that region can, by law, be labeled Champagne. It is made from special grapes, and after it is bottled, it goes through a second fermentation in the bottle, producing those lovely little bubbles that tickle your nose. Of course, this method is time consuming and can be prohibitively expensive when serving a large number of guests, so let’s run through the possibilities and give you some tips on how to select the right champagne for your wedding.

     The legendary, true French champagnes have their own glamorous personalities and elegant names. Veuve Cliquot, Dom Perignon, Mumm’s, Moet & Chandon. Their price tags may make you gasp -- they range from about $35 to a hefty $150 for rare, superior vintages. You may opt to have an exclusive sipping of Dom Perignon for the wedding party, with a delightful Prosecco sparkling wine for the assembled guests. There also are many versions of champagne “splits,” smaller bottles to serve one person. If you decide to offer just wine with dinner, but still want a bride-and-groom toast, you might try the whimsical Champagne “Pop,” brightly colored small bottles specifically designed for the bride and groom to toast each other.

     Sparkling wine is definitely a worthy substitute for true champagne. Wines today are so varied and of such good quality that everyone will be delighted with a glass or two of your hand-picked vintages. An excellent choice that everyone will rave about is the Gruet Brut from the mountain vineyards of New Mexico. The Gruet winemakers traveled the world looking for a location that had just the right soil and climate to produce a champagne that would be less expensive, yet still true to the French champagne-making tradition. Surprisingly, they chose the mountains of New Mexico and created their vineyard dedicated to this fine Brut. It is dry and nicely bubbly and is winning favor with experts and champagne lovers alike. Best of all, it is very reasonably priced at $14.50.

     The experts do offer one tip: when buying the beverages, you will want to estimate quantities. They advise that you always buy a little extra, perhaps a case or two more than you think you need ... running out of wine is an embarrassing faux pas. But having a bit left over is lovely, as you get to have a bottle or two for a romantic, post-honeymoon dinner for two!

     So you see, the task of choosing the right wine can turn out to be one of the most enjoyable tasks in your wedding planning!

     Thank you to the folks at McKean & Charles Wine Merchants in Waldoboro for their helpful advice and their extensive knowledge of wines.