Inexpensive wine recommendations for wedding

Hello everyone! I just came across your forum so this is my first post. I'm getting married in June and am currently looking for wine to serve at our wedding and would love your input. My initial thoughts were to buy Charles Shaw given our budget. Is there anything else in the Charles Shaw price range that you would recommend over CS? I know most of you would prefer a much higher end bottle but given our fixed budget, I'm trying to get the best bang for our buck.

Thank you for your help and input,
Matt

Also, the wedding is being held in Orange County, Ca so I should probably limit my choices to something that can be bought locally or can be shipped for a reasonable price.

[David M. Bueker]

There's very little that can be had for $3, though you could ask some folks at a good wine shop if there's anything distributors are trying to unload in this lousy economy (it's been happening). Is your price ceiling really $3-$4 a bottle or would $8-$10 be acceptable (it opens up a whole new world).

Welcome Matt. If you can step up as David suggests, entry level Rosemont Shiraz and Chardonnay will give you red and white crowd pleasers. Don't forget a bubbly for toasting. Spanish Cavas are budget choices.

I used to buy wine for the functions at my old graduate school, often with a $5-a-bottle budget. When I had to do this, I'd go to two big wine stores in my area, and say (more politely than this): "I need to buy 4 cases at $5 a bottle max. What's the best deal you can give me?"
Invariably, they'd cut me a deal on something decent that usually retailed in the $8 range. $8 isn't a whole lot, but it puts some of the basic wines from the S. hemipshere into play.

Not CS price level but I recently had a Trapiche Torrontes that I would be fine with serving to guests. I think I got it for $7/btl in a local grocery. With case discount you can probably get it down to $6 btl and maybe lower depending upon how much you need.

No help with reds in your price range.

As others have said, if you're willing to go to the $8 range, there are a lot more possibilities. One of those is the Borsao red, reliable if not profound at $7 or $8 or so. If you really need to stay in the Charles Shaw price neighborhood, you might look for the Crane Lake wines. I occasionally engage in some dollar-cost-averaging by trying those, which should be available for $3-$4. They make a myriad of varietals, so you might want to try some. Among reds, I thought a recent Sangiovese was a good effort for the price - which isn't saying that much, of course.

Hi, Matt. Welcome to WLDG.

You haven't said what kind of reception it is, or how many people you are expecting, but here's something else to think about. If your guests are not really wine people and/or it's not an extremely formal dinner, you might be able to forgo wine with dinner and just serve each guest a glass of some relatively inexpensive sparkling wine for toasting with dessert.

If you and your intended are wine people, purchase a nice bottle for yourselves and share it alone in your hotel room that evening.

In my recent quest for everyday wines I've tried a lot from Portugal and can recommend the '06 Palestra from Douro (red) and the '07 Quinta de Cabriz Dao (white) as wines that should appeal to just about anyone. Both can be had for $5.99 in my market and are not too rare - don't know what the distribution would be like where you live. Add in a case discount and you will have some very nice wines for little cash.

Also, the wedding is being held in Orange County, Ca so I should probably limit my choices to something that can be bought locally or can be shipped for a reasonable price.

Three words: Prosecco, Prosecco, and Prosecco.

You've got some great shops in Orange County, or nearby, to include Wine Exchange & Woodland Hills & Wine Expo [Roberto Rogness's shop]:

Wine Exchange
http://www.winex.com

Woodland Hills Wine Company
http://www.whwc.com

Wine Expo
http://www.wineexpo.com

I'd go into one of those shops, and ask for the three [or five] driest, lightest, most delicate proseccos in the $10/$12/$15 range [Roberto Rogness would have especially good insight here], and take them home, and get out a bunch of wine glasses, and have a little tasting, and decide which one I liked best, and then order cases and cases and cases of it [although get the salesman to promise you that he will order for you (or sell to you) the very same release of the wine as what you tasted - for example, if you taste the 2007 release now, but for your June wedding, the salesman gets you the 2008 release, then there's no guarantee that they will taste alike].

PS: In all seriousness, it doesn't necessarily have to be "Prosecco" - it could be a French Crémant d'Alsace, or a Spanish Cava, or a German Sekt, or some similar style of wine, but for light, delicate, airy, lithe, elegant, INEXPENSIVE sparkling wine, your best bet will probably be a Prosecco.

PPS: If you can go up just a little bit in price, to $23.99, then Wine Exchange has the NV Laetitia Brut Rose, from the Arroyo Grande region of California, which, in past releases, has been just a phenomenal wine:

NV LAETITIA BRUT ROSE
http://www.winex.com/wine-20633-.aspx

*

[Jenise]

Nathan, Roberto's shop and Woodland Hills are an hour plus away from the OC county line, but the OC does have the superb Hi Times in Newport Beach and the Wine Club that's just off the 55 on McFadden in Santa Ana/Costa Mesa. Between those two and the Wine Ex that you appropriately suggested, and perhaps others that have sprung up since I last lived there, there's no need for Matt to suffer the drive across L.A. And for a bubbly? The Seguras Vidas Aria from Spain is more interesting, at $9, than any Prosecco I've personally had. But I'm not sure that even $9 is in Matt's budget vs. the $2-$3 he's talking about for Charles Shaw.

the $2-$3 he's talking about

Get serious: $2 to $3 wouldn't purchase you a bottle of beer.

But $10 to $12 to $15 will purchase you a world class bottle of Prosecco, which could be capable of challenging champagnes costing 10x as much.
.

[Jenise]

Get serious: $2 to $3 wouldn't purchase you a bottle of beer.

No, Nathan, YOU get serious. Charles Shaw is the infamous "Two Buck Chuck". Get it? Two Buck--$2-3? Same thing.

And I don't know where you're buying your Prosecco at, but I've never tasted one at any price that would beat any champagne let alone a $100 one. And for $10-15? They must ship all the crappy Prosecco to my side of the country, because every one I've tasted has been a bit dull if not dilute and a bit sweet. Name some names, I'd love to find a Prosecco that good.

[David M. Bueker]

Nathan,

Matt gave his parameters. You ignored them. Why exactly did you post? Were you bored today?

Matt,

The house wine at Olive Garden is called Principato. They make a very drinkable red, white and rose wine. While you pay $4.50 a glass in the restaurant you can pick it up at some liquor stores for under $5 per 1000 ml bottle, and cheaper by the case. Not all liquor stores carry it, and they are not allowed to display it. You have to ask. Also, as previously suggested as your friendly wine shop merchant what sort of good case deals he has. You might be surprised. I did that and picked up a case of BV Coastal Estates Cab for around $4 per the other day.

Name some names, I'd love to find a Prosecco that good.

Jenise,

I've had Conegliano Valdobbiadene that is pretty good. It could hold its own with some $40+ champers, but not the $100 models. I would like for someone to invite me to side by side comparison tasting though.

Sam

Get serious: $2 to $3 wouldn't purchase you a bottle of beer.

No, Nathan, YOU get serious. Charles Shaw is the infamous "Two Buck Chuck". Get it? Two Buck--$2-3? Same thing..

Indeed. As reported by Roberto Rogness (cited by Nathan) on another forum, economy wine (selling for LESS than $3.00) is almost 25% of the US market, while Sub-Premium wines ($3.00-$6.99) have 44%. Shocking!

And I don't know where you're buying your Prosecco at, but I've never tasted one at any price that would beat any champagne let alone a $100 one. And for $10-15? They must ship all the crappy Prosecco to my side of the country, because every one I've tasted has been a bit dull if not dilute and a bit sweet. Name some names, I'd love to find a Prosecco that good.

I don't know that I've had a Prosecco that I thought better than my preferred $30 Champagne, but I've had a few that I thought better than the average $25 Champagne. In order, I'd look for Bisson, Nino Franco, Riondo, Bisol if you haven't tried.

I think Jenise is pretty much correct (except at most traffic times WHWC is probably close to 2 hours from OC!). How much is Matt willing to pay? If under $5/bottle, options are very limited.

Matt, w/o knowing what your budget limit is and how much you care about the wine, I think best advice (distlilled from previous comments) is to go to 2-3 shops near you (I agree Winex is good, only decent OC shop I've been to). Tell them your budget, let them give you a couple of recs. Buy a bottle of each, see what you think. There's not much at $3/bottle, but if you go a bit higher some ok stuff in $5-7 range. Spain and Portugal might be best bets. I'm a geek, but on a budget and with a crowd that wasn't vinocentric, for our wedding I think I did Borsao (temp/grenache blend), Cotes du Rhone, a Muscadet, and a CA Chard. None were over $6 in 2001.

Whatever you choose, relax- the wine is the least important part of the day (well. after the flowers).

Sorry if this appears crass, but why are you inviting so many people if your budget is so tight? Just give up entirely on wine, then, and get some kegs of good beer and ale.

Hi Matt, and welcome to WLDG. Like David B and others, I think if you up it to $8 to $10 a bottle you will definitely open up an entirely different window to the wonderful world of wine. Surely by hunting you can probably find something closer to your range. I would consider the wine in the keg by Mas Vino from Northern California. I’m not sure if they have branched down into Southern California.

Salute

But just for the record, about five seconds of googling found this page:

Where to Watch Football: Drink & Food Deals
Updated 5:15 PM EST, Mon, Dec 15, 2008
nbcwashington.com

which indicates [as I knew it would] that you can't purchase even domestic bottled beer for under $2 in a bar anymore.

No one argued that point with you, Nathan. All that was in contention was the price of Charles Shaw wines.

But in all seriousness, for Matt McCawley - I'd try to get in touch with Rogness to see what he could recommend as far as light, delicate, elegant wine for people on a budget [unless, of course, you want thick, heavy, awkward wine suitable for inducing vomiting and inflicting days-long hangovers, in which case any grocery store jug wine should do - although you might get even more bang for your buck with Thunderbird & its ilk.

Matt came here earnestly seeking advice, and what you're telling him is that unless he's willing to go seriously overbudget and buy the kind of wine you prefer, he's drinking like a Skid Row bum. Fortunately, this thread is full of better examples of the kind of helpful advice we like newcomers to receive.

[David M. Bueker]

Nathan - your tone is completely counter to the spirit of this site & I would appreciate it if you would either edit your own post or delete it. You dig your own hole.

[Jenise]

Oh dear, I've made the perfectly awful mistake of replying to Nathan in Edit mode rather than Quote, so I've changed his post forever. I would restore it as it was, but the original post is not retrievable. Nathan, my apologies, I did not mean to do that. You may, however, edit your own post (and remove my comments) to restore your own words as they first appeared.

Matt,

I was at the local wine shop today and asked your question to the store manager who has been in the business for a long time. He said that he gives case discounts of 20%, and multi-case discounts of up to 30%. As far as recommendations, he said in the $2-$3 range you would have to stick with the jug style wines like Franzia and Gallo (the Gallo Hearty Burgundy is really not that bad). For a couple of dollars more you could get some South African (Sebeka) and Chilean wines by the case. He said that if you can move to the $7-$8 price range (cases) that the world is your oyster! In fact, I picked up a very nice little Montepulciano by Caldora for $9.00 (bottle) that stemmed from the conversation. Thank you!

Oh dear, I've made the perfectly awful mistake of replying to Nathan in Edit mode rather than Quote, so I've changed his post forever. I would restore it as it was, but the original post is not retrievable. Nathan, my apologies, I did not mean to do that. You may, however, edit your own post (and remove my comments) to restore your own words as they first appeared.

I'm just curious why anyone, other than the original author, would have rights to amend/revise any post? Lock it, delete it, I don't really care, but authority to revise a post should not be allowed except by the original poster. Period, IMO.
'Winger

[James Roscoe]

Oh dear, I've made the perfectly awful mistake of replying to Nathan in Edit mode rather than Quote, so I've changed his post forever. I would restore it as it was, but the original post is not retrievable. Nathan, my apologies, I did not mean to do that. You may, however, edit your own post (and remove my comments) to restore your own words as they first appeared.

I'm just curious why anyone, other than the original author, would have rights to amend/revise any post? Lock it, delete it, I don't really care, but authority to revise a post should not be allowed except by the original poster. Period, IMO.
'Winger

When you are quoting a post you can pretty much do what you like with the original Bill. It's kind of like being a journalist. You can take quotes out of context, quote only a small portion, etc.. The original post can only be edited by the poster or someone who has keys like Jenise, as far as I understand it. Jenise, Robin, or Cynthia are free to correct me if I am wrong.