Choosing wine for the entire table

My wife and I are hosting my son’s and future daughter in laws rehearsal dinner in a couple of weeks.  We are having it at one of our favorite Italian restaurants.  In addition to picking out the menu we are of course going to choose the wine.  Despite being a wine guy I still find the process of picking wines a bit intimidating.  Not that I have any problem picking out the right wine I am a wine guy after all, but it’s just so hard to make everyone happy.  I have already told you about my daughter in law to be that only drinks sweet wine (click here in case you missed it).  Her parents are wine people as well with some pretty strong views of wines they like as well.  They have never disappointed me with their wine selections.  There are also people going to the dinner with varying degrees of wine-e-ness  that ranges from I only drink white, to I only drink cabs, to wine is the devil's nectar and should be avoided lest ye risk eternal damnation.    

For this particular event I going to say the heck with ‘em.  With the exception of a sweet wine for my daughter in law to be (she is the bride after all and this is all about her) I am going to execute my vision of which wine not only goes well with that night's menu, but also give those in attendance some sense of our families Sicilian heritage.  The restaurant owner is from Sicily and imports wines directly from the island.  Because of that I am choosing from his Sicilian wines to serve with dinner. I doubt anyone attending has ever tasted any of the wines but because Mrs. Wine Guy and I really enjoy them hopefully everyone else will learn something new and grow in their understanding of wine.  Odds are some of them won’t like it but oh well they are eating for free so I won’t feel too sorry for them.  

I don’t usually take such a hard line however.  I usually take a more kumbayatic approach and do try and make everyone happy, especially when I am not bankrolling the experience.   

So how can you pick out a bottle of wine that will keep everyone happy?  How can you pick out a bottle of wine that goes well with all of the dishes everyone is ordering?  How can you select a wine that will make everyone happy giving all of biases and preconceptions people have about the wines they like?   

The secret is to not worry about ordering the perfect wine but order a wine that is good enough.

Here is what I do.  

Before your order wine make sure you know what everyone is ordering. If you are dining with just one other couple, and everyone is ordering something similar, or if two people order something similar you can use my handy food/wine pairing guide to pick the right bottle

If you have only have one person ordering something dissimilar you can order a bottle for the majority and order wine by the glass for the loaner.  

The real challenge is when you have a group of 6 or more people that you have to make happy.  I never get too creative when I try to do that.  I follow one simple rule.  I order a Pinot Noir for all the people that only drink or order food that goes with a red, and a un-oaked Chardonnay for the folks that only drink white or order foods that go better with white.   Pinot goes well with just about any meat, red sauce, and heavier fish (Salmon, Tuna) while the un-oaked Chardonnay goes with almost any seafood or chicken dish and goes reasonable well with salads.  I may not have put all my wine skills to the test but everyone is reasonably happy and you will not lose the respect of any of your fellow diners.  These may not be the perfect choices but they are good enough.

The rehearsal dinner is at the end of September I will let you know how it goes.

Please post a comment if you agree, disagree, or have any questions.