Buying wine for the Bridal Shower

Mrs. Wine Guy was throwing a bridal shower for the future daughter in law recently.  My hope was that I would get to go visit one of my buddies or head over to the sports bar and watch a game on TV, or do some other manly pursuit.  That hope was short lived when the Mrs. WG asked “would you mind being the bartender”.  Knowing that no was not an option I lied and said “I’d be happy to honey.” 

So there I was, committed to using up a perfectly good Sunday afternoon serving wine to 14 ladies.  I did not know about half of the ladies attending and I knew that at least four of them did not drink at all.  So I was selecting wine for at most 10 ladies.  Two were Mrs. Wine Guy and the bride’s mother both of which who have fairly sophisticated palates.  I have a niece that is a fan of Pinot Noir, and the bride to be that will only drink sweet wine, but the rest of them were uncharted territory. 

I had to put my wine guy skills to the test using part of what I had written about in "Choosing wine for the entire table", and "Wine toserve your cousin Guido".  I needed to serve wine that would work with the more knowledgeable attendees but at price points where I would not feel bad if the wines went unappreciated.  

I headed off to Total Wine. 

The day of the shower was going to be a hot summer day.  The meal would consist of a light lunch featuring various fruit and vegetable salads, and chicken salad. I would focus on whites but would find something light for the Red wine drinkers. I had settled on a Pinot Noir for the red and was looking for one that would not break the bank.  At the tasting bar they were pouring a Mount Warren Pinot ($7.99) from Southwest France.  It was not memorable but it was very drinkable.  I have had good luck with Pinot from France grown outside of Burgundy.  They are a good value and always drink better than their price point.  An easy way to identify them is simply finding French wines called “Pinot Noir”.  Burgundy Pinot’s have the name of the region or just be called “Burgundy”.   The wine proved very popular as nearly two bottles were consumed.

I had a selection of whites.  Making sure the bride had a sweet wine she would enjoy I selected a Mallee Point Moscato ($6.99, Australia).  The wine got 87 points from Wine Spector so how bad could it be?  Not bad at all one bottle consumed. I chose our house Chardonnay, D’Autrefois  ($11.99 Southern France) knowing that Mrs. Wine Guy would enjoy it and hoping that the mother of the bride would as well. It is light and crisp, has a hint of oak and not very buttery.  Perfect of a summer meal. One bottle consumed.  

As a special treat I bought a couple of bottles of Tesoro dell Regina Prosecco ($16.99 Italy, Veneto) but no one tried it.  Mrs. WG and I will enjoy them soon. 

Bottom line is the shower was a great success everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, the bride got lots of wonderful presents, and most importantly I received several complements on my wine selections. 

That’s it for now please post a comment if you have any thoughts or questions