Divine wine
Wondering which wines to serve at your wedding? What about how many bottles you’ll need for your guests? Laura Willan from Wine Divine shares her knowledge with Canterbury Bride.
Best wines to serve at a wedding?
The best wines are wines that you enjoy yourself! Bubbles would be on the top of our list and you would be surprised how many people drink bubbles at a wedding when normally it’s not their choice of variety. Bubbles is crisp, refreshing and light. We work with amazing importers from France and can also source very good quality and good value bubbles with our wholesale pricing which will in turn help your budget.
Sauvignon Blanc has 60 per cent of the market share so it’s a clear favourite, but not always the favourite of your guests. Many wine drinkers are going for a Pinot Gris or favouring a Chardonnay and then there is the pretty-pink-in-a-glass Rosé! Rosé is becoming very popular at weddings as another option to Sauvignon Blanc. Reds normally make their entry to the event with food or as the sun goes down. Pinot Noir is always a favourite with New Zealand drinkers, however Merlot, Shiraz and Cabernet blends can be found and favoured for their quality and price.
How do you work out how much wine to buy?
You never want to run out of wine at your wedding, but you don’t want to overspend and be left with wine for the next couple of Christmases.
Wine Divine offers a sale and return policy as well as wholesale pricing which is better pricing than your supermarket. Our rule of thumb is to do the numbers based on the following:
2 x glasses of bubbles per person and divide that number by 5. You should get 6 flutes per bottle, do the numbers on 5 glasses which gives you a wee buffer.
For example 100 guests, 200 glasses, 40 x bottles. We then suggest another 1 x bottle per person for the rest of the wine. There are always beer drinkers, and non-drinkers, and always a few aunties who drink more than a bottle, and girlfriends who are on bubbles all night! We have never had anyone run out of wine on these calculations.