I Wasn’t Letting the Venue Choose My Wedding Wine!

Wine at a wedding probably isn’t something most people spend too much time worrying about.

Red, white and rosé on the tables, keep everyone’s glass topped up and job done.

Unfortunately, I am not most people when it comes to wine.

We’re getting married in Ibiza on the 30th May, and with the wedding getting frighteningly close, we’re now at the stage where all the little details are being finalised. One of those details was the wine.

I’d assumed at some point we’d get to choose it.

We didn’t!

The Wedding Wine Had Already Been Chosen

The venue sent through the wine selection and that was apparently that.

Don Aurelio Verdejo.

Don Aurelio Garnacha.

Don Aurelio Rosado Blush.

Now, I’m not going to sit here and say these are terrible wines because I haven’t tasted them. They might be perfectly decent, easy drinking Spanish wines and, realistically, that’s probably exactly what a wedding venue wants.

Most people aren’t sitting at a wedding breakfast analysing tannin structure and length. They want something cold, refreshing and drinkable while celebrating with their friends.

But this is my wedding.

And wine has become far too big a part of my life for me to have absolutely no say in what we’re drinking on the day.

I couldn’t do it.

I Had to Say Something

There is obviously a balance here.

I didn’t want to become the nightmare groom demanding Grand Cru Burgundy and aged Bordeaux for a room full of people who would be equally happy with a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc.

That would be ridiculous.

What I wanted was something that still made sense for an Ibiza wedding, but had a little more identity behind it.

Something Spanish. Something recognisable. Something that felt as though we’d actually chosen it rather than simply accepted whatever happened to be included in the package.

So I asked the question.

Could we upgrade the wine?

Thankfully, the answer was yes.

And what came back was considerably more interesting.

Enter Marqués de Riscal

The alternative selection was:

Herederos del Marqués de Riscal Verdejo 2024

Herederos del Marqués de Riscal Rioja Rosado 2024

Arienzo de Marqués de Riscal Crianza 2022

Now we’re talking.

Marqués de Riscal is a producer I already know, and more importantly, it’s a producer whose style I have enjoyed before.

I’ve become increasingly drawn towards Rioja over the past year or so. There’s something about the combination of fruit, savoury development and that unmistakable oak influence that keeps pulling me back.

I’ve drunk some genuinely brilliant Rioja recently, from Viña Alberdi through to López de Heredia Viña Tondonia, and I’ve found myself reaching for the region more and more.

So having Riscal on the tables at our wedding suddenly felt much more personal.

It also still makes complete sense in Ibiza.

We’re not trying to turn a Mediterranean wedding into a Bordeaux tasting.

The Verdejo should be fresh, bright and exactly the sort of wine you want cold in the Spanish sunshine. The rosé should fulfil a similar role, and Rioja gives us a red with enough familiarity to work for a room full of guests while still offering something for those who actually care what’s in the glass.

There was just one more thing.

Of Course I Asked for the Reserva

The suggested red was Arienzo Crianza 2022.

Perfectly respectable.

Naturally, I immediately asked whether we could have the Reserva instead.

I know. I can’t help myself.

But this is where I think there’s an interesting point about wedding wine.

I’m not trying to put the most expensive bottle possible on every table. In many ways, that would be completely pointless. It’s going to be warm, people will be talking, eating, celebrating and probably drinking several different things throughout the day.

This isn’t the environment for contemplating a £100 bottle of wine for three hours.

But moving from generic house wine to a respected Spanish producer is different.

The cost increase we’ve been quoted for the upgraded selection is only €1.50 per person, per hour during the dinner service.

In the context of a wedding, that feels like one of the easier decisions we’ve made.

If the Reserva adds a little more complexity, development and depth to the red without sending the price into stupidity, I’ll happily pay the difference again.

Hopefully they say yes.

Does Wedding Wine Actually Matter?

This whole thing got me thinking about how much the wine at a wedding really matters.

For the majority of our guests, probably not very much.

I doubt anybody is going to wake up the following morning and tell me that the highlight of the wedding was the integration of the oak in the Rioja.

At least I hope not.

But I think the details of a wedding are supposed to represent the people getting married.

Some people obsess over flowers. Some spend a fortune on cars. Others care enormously about the cake, the music or the decorations.

For me, wine was always going to matter.

Not because I need everyone drinking something expensive, but because I want to look at the bottle on the table and know there was a reason it was there.

I’d rather serve a wine with some identity and connection to the place we’re getting married than something completely anonymous simply because it came with the package.

And that’s exactly what we’ve ended up with.

The Real Tasting Comes on 30th May

Obviously, there’s one rather important part missing from this article.

I haven’t tasted the wedding wines yet.

I’m deliberately not going to pretend otherwise and start writing tasting notes based on what I expect them to taste like.

The proper verdict comes in Ibiza.

I’ll be interested to see how the Verdejo performs in the heat, whether the rosé becomes the unexpected favourite and, assuming I get my way, whether upgrading to the Reserva was actually worth bothering with.

More importantly, I’ll get to find out how they work with the food and the atmosphere of the day itself.

Wine is never really just what’s in the glass anyway.

Certain bottles become attached to places, meals and memories. I’ve got wines I can taste now that immediately take me back to where I was when I first drank them.

There’s a decent chance that one of these will eventually do exactly the same thing.

Years from now, I might open a bottle of Marqués de Riscal and immediately think of Ibiza, our family and friends around the tables, and marrying Liv on the 30th May.

If that happens, the extra €1.50 will probably have been money rather well spent.

The wedding wine has been chosen. Now I just need them to approve that Reserva.