The general rule of thumb here is to avoid serving branded wines at your wedding, unless of course you are serving Chateau Petrus, Latour, Margaux (i.e. top class really expensive stuff!)


Brand Definition


“Word(s) that identify not only a product but also its manufacturer or producer, such as Apple, Coca Cola, IBM, Mercedes, Shell, Sony, Toyota.”


Why, you may ask?


Well the answer is simple; in general you do not want your guests knowing exactly how much you have spent on the wine that you are serving. Furthermore big brand wines are really not going to surprise anyone or add to the occasion in any particular way. It is a much better idea to introduce your guests to something new or different (it may even spark a wine debate at the table).
Most hotels and restaurants have wines that you cannot find on easily on supermarket shelves on their list for the same reason. They do not want you getting annoyed at paying €30 for the Louis Latour Macon Lugny that you can buy in your local Spar for €11. Most major wine companies will have specific ‘On Trade’ brands exclusively for restaurants and Hotels so that they can avoid their blushes and hide their margin nice and discretely.
The Irish wine consumer is getting more and more savvy some or lots of your guests will easily recognize many of the following brands and have a fair idea of what they cost;


Australia – Jacobs Creek, Hardy’s, Wolf Balss, Lindemans, Rosemont, McGuigan’s. Brown Brothers


Chile – Santa Rita, Errazuriz, Carmen, Concha Y Toro, Montes, Undurraga


Spain – Torres, Faustino, Chivite, Frexinet, El Coto


France – Louis Latour, Guigal, Louis Jadot, Mouton Cadet, Michel Lynch, La Piat D’Or (obviously!)


Italy – Masi, Antinori,


New Zealand – Oyster Bay, Montana


USA – Gallo, Blossom Hill, Sutter Home
This list is by no means exhaustive (Just the ones I can name off the top of my head). Some of the above make fantastic wines but the point is that your guests can get most of them any day of the week, why not give them something different on your wedding day ?

Tags: Brand Wines, Different Wines, Expensive Wines, Hotels, Restaurants, Spar, Weddings

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Brand Wines, Different Wines, Hotels, Secret Wines, Wedding Wine, Wine Questions and Answers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.