The Marrying Kind

One of life’s more pleasantly vexing problems is which wine to serve at your wedding. It’s usually well down the list of wedding blast-off details, but most planners eventually do reach it.

When I’m asked for advice on this subject, I usually say elope and use the money you save to start a nice wine cellar. Nobody follows this reasonable suggestion. Apparently, once people get the idea of a wedding party in their heads, there’s no dislodging it.

However, my alternative advice is almost always embraced: Don’t spend more than you have to. Party planners beam with pleasure on hearing this. I point out--rightly, if I may say so--that no one pays that much attention to wine at a big party. It’s not a wine tasting, after all.

But remember, “don’t spend more than you have to” doesn’t mean “spend as little as you can.” It’s depressing to saunter into a party atingle with anticipation only to be handed an utterly boring wine. After all, most of us do know what decent wine tastes like, and when given something blah, we can’t help but feel that someone didn’t care how much we’d enjoy it. And what is a party if not an exaltation of pleasure?

My next bit of advice is always this: Serve only two kinds of wine, sparkling and white--never red, no matter what the food is.

One reason is that most weddings take place in warm weather, when white wines are more appealing, but the main reason is that white wine doesn’t stain. How many times have you had to stand around at a party juggling a plate of food and a glass of wine? There’s nothing like getting, or putting, a blotch of red wine on a dress or shirt to make you feel like a fool. Naturally, such spills happen within 10 minutes of your arrival. Why invite trouble?

Back to the practical matter of not spending too much on the wine. Many receptions are held at restaurants and banquet rooms. Now, caterers typically know nothing about wine, so they choose the cheapest or most common wines. Restaurants, for their part, offer a list of possible wines that all too often are shabbily selected and marked up outrageously. No matter how swank the caterer or restaurant you’re dealing with, it’s worth your while to dicker about the wine.

The best tactic is to come up with your own wine selections. Go to a good retailer and tell the salesperson you want to buy a dozen kinds of inexpensive wine suitable for a big party. Try them at home and decide which you like. Now that you know the wine you want, consider getting the restaurant or caterer to let you purchase it, with the understanding that you will pay a modest corkage fee on each bottle served.

If the caterers are doing the purchasing, at any rate you can make informed suggestions--and you’re armed with the knowledge of their retail prices. Ask the caterers exactly what they will charge for each of the wines. If you think it’s too much, check elsewhere. Also, make it clear from the outset whether you are paying only for the bottles that are served or for all the wine they buy, opened or not.

As for figuring quantities, a good rule of thumb is one-third of a bottle (8 1/2 ounces) per adult. This varies depending upon your other offerings, like beer, soft drinks, bottled water, mixed drinks and the like; if there will be a lot of other beverages, you can go somewhat lower. If it’s strictly a wine or water affair, then plan on half a bottle per adult.

Figure on spending a disproportionate amount of your wine budget on sparkling wine. It’s easy to find pretty good table wines at really low prices but almost impossible to get drinkable bubbly for much less than 10 bucks a (celebratory) pop.

Here’s the not-so-secret truth about buying sparkling wine: When wedding season arrives, wholesalers bloom with discounts. Unfortunately, you never know ahead of time which label is going to offer the most tempting price. But this much is certain: French Champagne is always too expensive for big parties.

One alternative is a Spanish sparkling wine like Freixenet, Codorniu or Castellblanch, all of which are cheap but mostly only passable in quality. With these Spanish sparklers, get the extra-dry rather than the brut bottling, as the latter tend to be a little too severely dry for sipping pleasure.

One good, underexposed alternative is Italian sparkling wine. Italy is one of Europe’s highest consumers of bubbly, so it’s not surprising that there are a lot of sparkling wine producers in the cool-climate northern part of the country. Some ask top prices; others, usually state-subsidized winegrowers’ cooperatives, issue excellent sparkling wines at appealing prices. A good choice: 1990 Rotari Brut “Riserva” at a street price of $9.95 a bottle.

Nevertheless, it’s hard to beat California bubbly, as the current sparkling wine glut makes for deep discounts. Here’s where working with an aggressive retailer really pays off because, unlike caterers and all but a few restaurants, they track these discounts like hungry wolves. Buy the least expensive basic brut bottling of any of the better California sparkling wine producers, such as Domaine Chandon, Scharffenberger, Roederer Estate, Domaine Carneros, S. Anderson Vineyard, Mumm Napa Valley, Iron Horse, Gloria Ferrer, Codorniu Napa or Maison Deutz. A good choice: Mumm Cuvee Napa Brut “Prestige” at a street price of $9.95 a bottle.

Not everyone at a wedding drinks wine (or is legally entitled to). Yet it’s nice to offer something more festive and classier-looking than soda. This is the ticket: Duche de Longueville Sparkling Apple Cider, a nonalcoholic, not overly sweet French sparkling apple cider packaged much like French Champagne. Not only does it look snappy, it’s exceptionally good cider, the best I’ve tasted. At $3.95 for a full-sized (750-milliliter) bottle, it’s a tasty alternative to wine.

As for non-sparkling white wines, in recent years Zenato Lugana “San Benedetto” has developed an enthusiastic following. (Lugana is a small wine district in northern Italy, right on the shore of Lake Garda.) The 1995 vintage is a crisp dry wine with the sort of insinuating flavor that has you going back for more. It’s priced at $10.75, but look for a street price as low as $7.95.

Good white Riojas, like the 1995 Bodegas Montecillo Vin~a Cumbrero White Rioja ($6.95), are another option. Although Spain’s Rioja district is usually associated with red wine, a good amount of white wine is produced. They are best when impeccably young and fresh, the better to preserve the delicate fruitiness of the Viura variety. Vin~a Cumbrero is a lovely example of just how inviting the fresh style can be. This is a crisp, delicate yet invigorating dry white wine. Look for a street price as low as $4.95 a bottle.

On the other hand, parties are an ideal setting for white wines that have an edge of sweetness. They slide right down and are ideal for sipping on their own.

This is the sort of wine Washington’s Columbia Winery has down pat. The Columbia Winery Riesling 1995-96 “Cellarmaster’s Reserve” ($8.95) is pure Riesling in all its apricot-scented glory, lush yet crisp, a sipper supreme. At a street price as low as $6.95 a bottle, it’s one of America’s white wine bargains.