Wedding Wine

barnaneboi

We are looking to sort our wine for our big day at the moment, does anybody have any stories of where they got their wine for the wedding? Have heard of a few people going to France to bring it back but is there any where in Ireland to get good deals?

clint_silver

barnaneboi wrote: »

We are looking to sort our wine for our big day at the moment, does anybody have any stories of where they got their wine for the wedding? Have heard of a few people going to France to bring it back but is there any where in Ireland to get good deals?

Hotels suggest allowing half bottle per head attending (whether wine drinkers or not), average wedding is 140 so 70 bottles. Red is usually drank more than white so maybe 40/30 split.

What are the hotel charging you for that, thats yoru starting point. Lets say its 15e a bottle @ 70 bottles = 1050e

Do you want significant savings on that or want nicer wine for the money?

Have you identified how nice a wine you want to get? Supervalu are doing a nice barolo at the moment for 12e I think, Im sure if you asked them nicely theyed do a deal.

What wine to pick? 14% or above in a red will be very heavy for a long days drinking (noone tells you this) try and keep it around 12-13% otherwise guests will be very drunk.

Are you getting prosecco for arrivals?

Are the hotel charging you corkage?

Hit all the main wine discount shops, ask for bulk discount. I cant see how you would save gong to france with travel factored in unless you knew someone going anyway. If you were buying wine at 4e a bottle from france then sure theres savings, but what quality are you getting?

Senna

Most couples getting wine from France either know someone going over anyway or have connections in France. Cant see the savings outweighing the travel costs unless you are buying a massive amount. A trip to the north might be of more benefit.
There are a good few companies that supply wine for weddings to brides and grooms, one in Cork was talked about here before, I cant comment on them but with a bulk purchase they may work out cheaper.
Or if your wedding is still a while away, you could pick a popular (widely available) wine and buy a couple of bottles with each weeks shopping. Wouldn't be long before you would have a good supply and the cost wouldn't be noticed as much.

nosietoes

My sister went to France to get wine for her wedding, and for my brother's two years later. I plan on doing the same. The white wine (a muscadet sevre et maine) is 4.20 bottle for a bottle that is about €10 here, and the red is 4.40 (a cote du rhone) which the equivalent is about €11 here. They went to the Normadie wine warehouse in Cherbourg.

The value really is in how much you buy - it makes sense for an open bar type of wedding. For 100 people, my sister's friends went through 72 bottles of red, 60 bottles of white, 72 bottle of bubbles and nearly 2 kegs of beer/stout. But then there were no spirits available.

We went up north and didn't find much value compared to deals down here. We got the prosecco from O'Briens in bulk at around €8 a bottle, and got our wine in France (Loire valley, straight from the vineyard!). We took a week five months before the wedding and just sampled wine there. Found a gorgeous Torraine Sauvignon and a Gamay for around €4 a bottle. Full costs of the trip for 84 bottles of each was about €6 a bottle.

For Irish deals look at the supermarkets, especially Aldi/Lidl and supervalu. There's a bank holiday coming up now, have a look what offers are on.

Meathlass

My brother and his wife got their wedding wine in aldi and lidl. It was really nice and about €5 a bottle. They also had a nice/cheap tasting session one evening to pick out the best ones so that was a bonus!

I find after the first glass that it all tastes the same anyway!

Milly33

nosietoes wrote: »

My sister went to France to get wine for her wedding, and for my brother's two years later. I plan on doing the same. The white wine (a muscadet sevre et maine) is 4.20 bottle for a bottle that is about €10 here, and the red is 4.40 (a cote du rhone) which the equivalent is about €11 here. They went to the Normadie wine warehouse in Cherbourg.

The value really is in how much you buy - it makes sense for an open bar type of wedding. For 100 people, my sister's friends went through 72 bottles of red, 60 bottles of white, 72 bottle of bubbles and nearly 2 kegs of beer/stout. But then there were no spirits available.

very usefull information there.. Can I ask would the guests have been big drinkers. We are just looking at stocking a bar ourselves and it is hard to know how much to get..

I heard there is one of the ports in France you can just drive too and you can order the wine (maybe there is a depot at the port) and they will actually met you there with the wine and you head straight back on the boat

michellie

Our hotel are providing a half bottle per head, will this be enough? It's included in our package. Also champagne on arrival.

michellie

michellie wrote: »

Our hotel are providing a half bottle per head, will this be enough? It's included in our package. Also champagne on arrival.

Make sure to try the wine!

michellie

Dónal wrote: »

Make sure to try the wine!

Will do, thanks.

Gatica

We got ours in Cases in Galway, it's cases.ie on their site.
The white/red wines were in the region of 8-9 Euro after the discount. We picked relatively nice wines. We got 12 bottles and had a night of tasting with some family and friends. It was good fun and got really good consensus on the white wine and picked second most popular of the reds (cos I liked it :pac: ).
The bonus with getting it there is that we brought back unused bottles and got over 200 quid back after the honeymoon which was brill... They also delivered it to the hotel the morning of the wedding, so didn't have to worry about lugging bottles around.
Got cava for around 11 Euro, which we were really happy with too.

nosietoes

Well they would have been reasonable drinkers but there was no one messy there. It was spread out over 9/10 hours and because the wedding was at home, there was no parking so no one was driving - everyone was walking or taking a taxi.

Oh and they sparkling wine is about €7.25/bottle and most weddings wouldn't go through 72 bottles! Think it may have been the weather being super sunny!

Saint Sonner

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the company in Kells that let you make your own wine. I heard the owner on talking about it one day and I think that it would be a nice thing to do for your wedding but I wouldn't want to do it if the stuff was muck!

MarieOC

Saint Sonner wrote: »

I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the company in Kells that let you make your own wine. I heard the owner on talking about it one day and I think that it would be a nice thing to do for your wedding but I wouldn't want to do it if the stuff was muck!

Hey, yeah we used him for ours - went down made the wine and collected it after 6 weeks - drank a bottle of the red and the white that weekend (going to try another bottle of each over Xmas, wedding isn't until the end Jan). Was a bit worried but it's really nice, very easy to drink (almost too easy) - even with corkage working out much cheaper than the house wines the hotel were offering

Saint Sonner

MarieOC wrote: »

Hey, yeah we used him for ours - went down made the wine and collected it after 6 weeks - drank a bottle of the red and the white that weekend (going to try another bottle of each over Xmas, wedding isn't until the end Jan). Was a bit worried but it's really nice, very easy to drink (almost too easy) - even with corkage working out much cheaper than the house wines the hotel were offering

Thanks for that if you don't mind me asking - how many would be at your wedding and how many bottles did you get?

MarieOC

Saint Sonner wrote: »

Thanks for that if you don't mind me asking - how many would be at your wedding and how many bottles did you get?

We're having a small enough one so reckon about 90-100 or so - the kits so 30 bottles, so have to order in multiples of that. So we got 2 red and 2 white, 120 bottles in total. We're wine drinkers anyway and it lasts for 2 years so I don't mind if there is some left over.

Saint Sonner

Great Info

Did you go for your own label for the wedding or something else. How much did it cost for the 120 bottles?

Sorry I sound like the gards here!

MarieOC

Saint Sonner wrote: »

Great Info

Did you go for your own label for the wedding or something else. How much did it cost for the 120 bottles?

Sorry I sound like the gards here!

No worries, was €540, including the actual bottles and labels.

We went for very unromantic labels "Red Wine" & "White Wine" same font as our invites. He can print whatever you want for labels though, and he has loads of samples of ones couples have used before. We just emailed them to him in a word doc and he had them printed when we went back down to bottle.

tarmon

I've used Vinatis in the past and would recommend them if you are looking for quality wine. They are based in France but also have a uk site.
I would also recommend Northern Ireland. You'll often get Codorniu or Freixnet Cava for about £5 a bottle, the same cava down South is about €20! You'll also often get good deals on Champagne if you want to go that route...around £15 a bottle. Also keep an eye out for Tesco 25% off 6 bottles or more up North to bring the price down even more!
If you're going North check out Asda, Tesco and Sainsburys. I often go to Enniskillen so if you need help just pm me.
T

Arbiter of Good Taste

Bear in mind most venues will charge corkage if you bring your own wine. So factor in that cost

Saint Sonner

Thanks for all the info - Its not totally a cost issue - I like the idea of being involved in the process of getting the wine ready – Be good day out and it’s a bit different.

pwurple

I'll admit I'm a wine snob alright, but surely to goodness this is going to be completely sub-standard, but with a personal label? It can't possibly be decent wine in that space of time. I've tasted the homebrew stuff that people make from imported packs, and it just tastes really fake. Like the jacob's creek type of thing. Alcoholic miwadi.

Saint Sonner

pwurple wrote: »

I'll admit I'm a wine snob alright, but surely to goodness this is going to be completely sub-standard, but with a personal label? It can't possibly be decent wine in that space of time. I've tasted the homebrew stuff that people make from imported packs, and it just tastes really fake. Like the jacob's creek type of thing. Alcoholic miwadi.

What would/did you serve at your wedding?

pwurple

Saint Sonner wrote: »

What would/did you serve at your wedding?

Beer! :0

MarieOC

I deffo wouldn't describe myself as a wine snob but I know what I like and what I don't. This is far from jacob's creek and the like.

I've made the home brew stuff back in college and it was muck so I was a little worried going in but you get to taste loads of different types before committing to which type you want to make.

The cost saving is marginal and given the trips to kells wouldn't have been worth it for cost alone. But we liked the idea of being as to say we made it and it was 2 fun Saturday's where we felt like we were doing something for the wedding but without any stress

fits

We bought the wine in O'Briens with the loyalty card as there was some offer on getting points. Using the points now towards the bubbly. Himself looked after it. Its good wine apparently, I havent tasted yet. We wanted to get nice wine.