Top Tips for Champagne at Your Wedding

Wedding Champagne

No wedding is complete without champagne, the sparkling wine of glamour and romance that comes from the region of France with the same name.  French Champagne is widely regarded as superior to most other sparkling wine. However it varies a lot in price, and for a large gathering very expensive champagne will be wasted on many of your guests – a sound non-vintage (‘nv’) should be perfectly adequate. These may vary from cheap supermarket offers around £12 (can be a bit risky), to sound small growers ) £14 -£18 (good value), to big names, Moët, Laurent Perrier, Bollinger etc £25 + (if you want to impress) and there are a couple of good supermarket own brands

An increasingly popular option is to have champagne with your own personal label – you can even include a picture of the happy couple!

                                                     

 
         

You can offer your guests champagne right through the reception, or you can serve it when guests arrive and later for toasts, and serve other wine in between.

Other wine 

If you decide not to serve champagne all the way through, when people arrive you can serve a ‘buck’s fizz’ mix of sparkling wine and orange, or Pimms, and a lot of guests will enjoy elderflower cordial mixed with sparkling mineral water – a very refreshing non alcoholic drink, great for a summer’s day.

If your budget doesn’t run to champagne, there are some good sparkling wines which can do instead, especially from ‘down under’ . For Bucks Fizz, you can use a cheap Spanish Cava.

Between your guests arrival and the toasts you can serve a dry or medium dry still white wine and a not over-heavy red.  You will want wine that is sound but at a large gathering there is little point in serving expensive wine of very high quality if many of your guests will not appreciate it.
For reliable suppliers of other wine try.

Nethergate Wines                  www.nethergatewines.com

Big Red Wine Company            www.bigredwine.co.uk

Nick Dobson Wines                 www.nickdobsonwines.co.uk

Leon Stolarski Fine Wines         www.lsfinewines.co.uk

How much will you need? You should allow about half a bottle per guest overall - some will drink less but others will make up for them. There are six normal sized glasses per bottle so you will need to make your calculations accordingly.  Don’t let the waiters open more bottles than you need. Budget permitting, there are advantages in ordering slightly too much, to be on the safe side: if you end up with a few bottles over, they can be given as presents to the best man, bridesmaids (if 18 or over!), ushers etc.  You can even keep a few for a later happy event!   However most wine merchants will supply on a sale or return basis if you ask them. Personally labelled bottles make wonderful reminders of your special day and can be kept as mementos.

Corkage

If your reception is at a hotel or other licensed premises, they will routinely expect to charge ‘Corkage’ Even with corkage, our champagne is likely to cost less.

Click here for information on Corkage

Prices

Champers Limited supplies Mont Hauban Sélection brut at £14.90. and their rosé at £15.85
Champers can also provide personalised champagne with your own special label for £18.50 (minimum 12 bottles)

So make sure you and your guests celebrate your wedding with that extra bit of sparkle!