Wedding Wine Guide

Primer for Buying Wine

An easy manual for making one part of your own special day forgettable

 No, we’re not encouraging you to serve cheap tasting wine to your guests.  We’re providing  you with an easy guide that will make selecting your wines an easy task. One you can quickly check off from your to-do list.  So relax, pour a glass of wine and browse through these tips for a successful celebration. Make your choices and forget about it!

Where Do I Begin?

Start out planning to stock one white and one red, plus a sparkling for the toast.

How Much Should I Plan to Buy?

Typically, the rule is two glasses of wine per person one glass of sparkling wine for the toast and additionally a glass of wine per hour after the first three hours.

Generally servings of sparkling wine are less than when serving red or white wine.  You can plan on getting 8 glasses from sparkling wine and typically six glasses from a bottle of red or white wine.

 How Do I Calculate What I’ll Need?

Let’s use a round number. {It’s easier that way} Round your number up or down accordingly.  We’ll go with 20 guests.

Remember you can expect to get 8 glasses from a bottle of sparkling wine and 6 from the table wine.

Let’s start with sparkling wine used for the toast:

20 guests x 1 glass per person =  20 glasses/8 glasses per bottle = 3 bottles

Now let’s calculate the table wine:

20 guests x 2 glasses per person = 40 glasses/6 glasses per bottle = 7 bottles

Plan to purchase 3 bottles of sparkling, 7 red and 7 white bottles of wine.

Do Your Friends Like to Drink?

You’ll need to take this into consideration.  The younger the crowd the more alcohol is consumed.  If this is the case consider bumping up the minimum:

Sparkling wine:
(20 people x 2 glasses per person = 40 glasses/8 glasses per bottle = 5 bottles)

Table wine
(20 people x 3 glasses per person = 60 glasses/6 glasses per bottle = 10 bottles)

Using this revised formula plan to purchase 5 bottles of sparkling, 10 red and 10 white bottles of wine.

But What About The Other Alcohol?

An open bar is important in factoring how much wine you’ll need for your party. That earlier figure could very well drop by more than half.  On the other hand, if you’re only serving beer, wine and champagne and you have bunch of drinkers, that figure could increase by 25% to 50%.

How Do I Account for the Open Bar?

For an open bar you might want to include .75 glasses per hour as the consumption rate.  If you’re party will last longer than the initially calculated three hours consider this as well.  Let’s bump up the party duration to five hours. You’ll need an extra 5 bottles added to the total calculated above.  This would bring your total to 10 bottles of table wine.

Your formula would look like this:

(20 people x 2 extra hours x .75 glasses per person = 30 glasses/ 6 glasses per bottle = 5 extra bottles)

If you’re not having an open bar but serving a thirsty crowd consider using 1.25 glasses per hour as your consumption rate. You’ll need an extra eight bottles added to the total calculated.  This would bring your total to eighteen bottles of table wine.

Your formula would look like this:

(20 people x 2 extra hours x 1.25 glasses per person = 50 glasses/ 6 glasses per bottle = 8 extra bottles)

Remember, all you need to figure out how much wine to buy is a basic math formula and calculated guesses. 


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{Perfectly Paired} Honey-Wine Smoked Ribs and Zin

Eventually, the rain and cool weather will fade and the sun will come out. Here in Bakersfield it will come out blazing!. When it does, we will make the best of it and shift cooking to the outdoor grill. Barbecue season is coming and it’s time to make plans with friends and get together. Some may shift their wine selections to whites when the heat comes to town. However, those of us that are red diehards will want something more substantial with our messy rack of ribs and grilled steaks. I present you with four excellent choices and a recipe to try.  Any of these would make great but inexpensive hostess gifts for your next party.   Enjoy!

1. Layer Cake Primitivo 06 (aka Zinfandel)
From Apulia region, Italy

Warm and rich in the mouth; the ripe fruit is well supported by the depth of the structure, great finish, and not overpowering.

Notes on the name from the maker;

“My grandfather made and enjoyed wine for 80 years,” said Jayson Woodbridge.
“He told me the soils in which the vines lived were a layer cake.
If properly made, the wine from these vines was like a delicious cake layered with fruit, mocha, chocolate and hints of spice – and rich, always rich.
‘Never pass up a good Layer Cake,’ he would say, I have always loved those words.
Now I get to apply this knowledge to my own experiences in these various lands.”

 

 

 

2. Earthquake Zinfandel Lodi 06
“It will Rock Your World !!”

What Makes You Quake?
Juicer plum, spicier clove and fuller in body than ever before!
Your taste buds will be in upheaval over the suede-like tannins churning together with vanilla and toasted raspberry cobbler. The loooong, smooth finish will leave you in a state of aftershock!

 

 

3. Christine Andrew Old Vine Zin 05

Lodi, California is otherwise known as Zin country.
Christine Andrew’s Old Vine” Zinfandel is made from fully mature grapes, from 70-year-old vines, It’s loaded with rich juicy berry flavors. The finish is smooth and elegant.

The Kautz Family are the owners and operators of Ironstone Vineyards.  The wine is named after the great-grandchildren from the family’s fourth generation.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Marietta Old Vine Red
Marietta Cellars, Geyserville, CA
Predominantly Zinfandel, more than half of the blend.
From the owners:

“Rich, ripe, dense, lush, jammy, juicy, lots of blackberry fruit and hints of pepper and spice a balanced, approachable, lip-smacking red wine ready to drink full of fruit with just enough tannins to make things interesting”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honey-Wine Smoked Ribs

Ingredients

SAUCE

  • 2  cups Zinfandel wine
  • 1/3  cup honey
  • 1/4  cup Dijon mustard
  • 1  tablespoon finely chopped onion
  • 2  tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1  tablespoon lemon juice

RIBS

  • 4  lb. fully cooked smoked pork loin back ribs, cut into serving-sized pieces

Directions

  1. GRILL DIRECTIONS: Heat grill. In medium saucepan, combine all sauce ingredients; blend well. Cook over medium-high heat for 25 to 30 minutes or until sauce is reduced by half and slightly thickened, stirring frequently.
  2. When ready to grill, place ribs on gas grill over medium-high heat or on charcoal grill 4 to 6 inches from medium-high coals. Brush ribs with sauce; cook 15 to 20 minutes or until ribs are thoroughly heated, turning and brushing frequently with sauce. Bring any remaining sauce to a boil; serve sauce with ribs.
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What to Think About When Deciding on Wine For Your Wedding Reception

Wine has long been offered at wedding receptions ever since the start of time.  Nonetheless, sampling as well as picking out your wine for your own personal wedding and reception is surely a significant as well as tricky task. While organizing a wedding and reception or just about any important significant celebration, paying attention to the particulars tends to make the main difference in just how unforgettable your  “special ” moment will be to you as well as your family and friends.

Deciding on your wine is without a doubt an essential element-a detail that shouldn’t be neglected.  Tastings with caterers as well bakers for your wedding cake are all done well in advance to select what will be served, why then would you not pair the wines ahead of time, as well?  Don’t risk it, decide early on.  There are also many other things to consider when buying and selecting the wine to serve at your wedding reception.

 

Your Guests

Exactly what wines do you really enjoy?  Think about your family and friends?  Do they like red, white, sparkling, or a dessert wine?  Will the attendees like 1 or 2 truly impressive glasses of wine to drink while they mingle.  Or perhaps, it might be wines are not really important to any of your guests?

 

Time of Day

Will you be having an evening or an afternoon ceremony?   Many people may possibly consume a little bit less during a daytime wedding compared to an evening ceremony. (drink more than a glass of wine in the afternoon, and you may be ready to go to bed even though the party is not nearly over)

 

Menu

Think about the food you are serving.  Are you trying to pair the wine with the food?   A beef entrée will probably be best paired with a red.   A chicken or pasta entrée will probably be best paired with a white.

 

Time of Year

Is the wedding reception planned for the middle of the summer months or the winter season?  That could very well matter to just what you select and offer your guests-are you trying to warm them up or cool them off?

 

What’s Your Budget?

Given that a lot of people don’t expect to have a limitless budget allowed to shell out on vino, you’ll definitely want to think about the price tag.  There could possibly be room to make a deal on the wine purchase up-front in a package deal.  As you are planning to shell out hard-earned cash on a wedding, you might possibly make a deal on your purchase when you’re planning to bring in a particular wine.  It’s worth a try!

 

 

Glasses

Wine and cheese tasting @ Strewn Winery

Amazingly, pouring wines into a wine glass designed for that specific wine type can certainly make a difference in the taste as well.  Quite a few wedding reception venues might not have varied wine glasses intended for different kinds of wines, however it’s well worth inquiring.  If not, that will definitely be an expense to consider as well.

 

What to Serve for the Toast?

Probably one of the most unforgettable memories from a wedding reception is definitely the toast.   The most expensive bubbly is Champagne, but that does not necessarily mean it is the best. You don’t have to serve Champagne for the toast.  What about it’s cheaper or just as cheery cousins, sparkling wines.  They offer a serious bang for the buck and it’s every bit as festive as Champagne and hey, if you’re worried your guests will feel slighted, pour it in another room and come out bearing a festive tray of pre-filled glasses.  Chances are they’ll never know the difference and if they do judge you – well, that’s just bad manners on their part.

 

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