GROOMS Drink Matters 7566 views

Do some homework and impress her by taking on board some expert advice on selecting wine for the wedding from Peter Stewart, Glasgow Director of Inverarity One to One.

Research! Taste as many wines as possible in your preferred price range. You are looking for "crowd pleasers", fruity wines that most people will be happy quaffing. Merlot, especially from the New World is a banker.

Keep it simple. You can't possibly please everyone, and it's madness to go down the route of getting in a single bottle of Puligny because it's all that Aunt Millie drinks. Ideally one white and one red, possibly with something special for the top table.

How much is enough? You get 5 decent glasses of fizz to a bottle...so take the number of guests, multiply by two (if you want them to have a glass on arrival and one for the toasts) and divide by five to give you the number of bottles required. I would also round it up a wee bit as a safety net...you don't want to run out and most wine merchants do sale or return. So for 80 guests having two glasses each, you would need 32 bottles, which I would round up to 36. For the table wine, roughly half a bottle per head is a decent estimate.

Champagne or sparkling? There are some excellent sparkling wines on the market, so you don't have to go crazy...although some people prefer to do both, starting with champagne and moving on to fizz. Again, try as many as possible beforehand, and pick one that you enjoy.

Food matching. Worth thinking about as the right wine with the menu will increase everyone's enjoyment of the day. The dominant flavours in the dish are the important ones, don't worry about the garnishes. Ask your wine merchant what he or she would recommend.

Money. Pick a price range and stick to it, whatever you are happy spending. Remember to factor in any corkage charges.

To find out about Inverarity's wine-selecting service contact 0141 221 5121 or go to www.inverarity121.com

Photo ©Freeman Photographics, iStockphoto

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