Bubbles for when the wedding bells ring

Choosing a sparkling wine for your special day can be a frustrating, expensive process. Jon Bonné sorts through the options.

updated 10:35 p.m. ET June 20, 2006

Jon Bonné
Lifestyle editor
• Profile

One more item to tack on to the million or so already on your list of wedding to-dos: Pick the perfect bubbly.

For this most momentous of celebrations, the wine to toast the new bride and groom need not be true French Champagne — though you can justly make the argument that a special day deserves a special wine.

The wine you choose — like every detail of the big day — should reflect your personal style. A traditional bride might want to splurge on a selection from France’s most respected Champagne houses. A more modish reception might call for bottles of Spanish cava or domestic bubbles.

Some considerations:

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(1) Know your audience. Are you inviting a bunch of wine snobs, or will your guests be content with a solid $8 bottle?

“You don’t want to underestimate your friends, but you also don’t want to overestimate them and blow your budget,” says wine consultant and former Spago Beverly Hills sommelier Bonnie Graves.

If you don't hang with a wine crowd, no need to spend extra cash on fancy stuff — unless it’s important to you personally, or you want to share a special wine experience on your special day.

Graves spent spent months selecting wines for her own Sept. 2004 wedding, knowing her guests expected transcendent wine selections: “We spent more money on that then we did on my dress.”

(2) Will they see the bottle? It may seem trivial, but your decision really hinges on this: Will those flutes of sparkling wine be poured behind the scenes (“pre-poured”) and handed out, or will they be poured at the table or bar?

If your guests won't ever see the bottles, there’s frankly no reason to spend extra. No need to be cheap, either, but plenty of tasty wines can be found for under $15 a bottle (our picks below). Given the skyrocketing cost of weddings, why splurge on something that won’t leave an impression?

If, on the other hand, you intend to have the staff pour wine at the table (often the classier option, if also a pricier one), your wine choices will most certainly make a statement — at least among folks who know their wine.

(3) Don’t overdo it. A sparkler for toasting should be memorable, but it shouldn't be a monster wine. “The most profound and complex wine is not always the right wine for the occasion,” says Gary Westby, Champagne buyer for K&L Wines in Redwood City, Calif. “The kind of thing you’d want for you and your new bride when you’re sitting down on your honeymoon and getting into a bottle is different from what you want for the toast.”

Be realistic about the setting: Your guests are eating and drinking, with music and dancing and lots of chatter. Is it truly the moment for blow-you-away bubbles? Vintage Champagne can sit on its lees and in bottle for five years or more, developing richness and texture; those are welcome qualities for a special dinner, less so for a wedding-day bash.

Save the top-end stuff for a small party later on.

(4) Know your options. Frankly, wedding venues and caterers make lots of money on liquor — often by purchasing cost-effective labels (that’s my nice way of saying bad wine) and charging a premium.

Before you sign any contract, get specifics about what you'll be served. Ask to taste. You may be told that you can’t bring in the wines you want; that might sometimes be true, but you’re within your rights to ask for your own selections and pay a per-bottle corkage fee. Don’t settle for wine you don’t want.

“Check out all their policies ahead of time,” Graves says.

She should know. For her own wedding, she not only haggled with staff at Utah’s Sundance resort but had to convince the state's hard-nosed liquor commission to let her bring in her wine.

Decide whether you want bubbly available throughout the reception, or just for the toast. Be clear with the caterer and staff about ground rules for pouring. For the toast, plan to serve 6-8 people with each bottle.

(5) Taste beforehand. If you can purchase your own wine, choose a retailer you trust and and ask for their help in selecting several options to try. Ask your friends to help.

Be clear about your spending limits when you begin the process. Westby served true Champagne at his own wedding — but with only 45 guests, he didn’t bust his budget. Raise that to 300 people and unless Diddy's on your speed dial, you’ll probably be dizzy from seeing that many zeroes. (Though not if you've started pricing floral arrangements.)

Don’t be afraid to set limits. “The one thing I think is really important is to have somebody who will respect your price range,” Westby says.

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