Pairings · wedding menu
Which wine with your wedding menu, course by course?
The caterer sends the menu, and the question follows: which wine with the starter, which with the main, should it change for the cheese. Build the menu below: for each course, a Bordeaux appellation, a colour, an age, a price range. No brand, and with the effect on quantities, because a fish menu is not bought like a meat menu.
Build the menu, read the wine
Four courses, four choices. The result gives the pairing for each dish and the share of white this menu requires across all the bottles.
Reading a menu like a wine seller
A wedding menu reads from top to bottom, and the wine follows the same slope: light first, denser next, then back to freshness at dessert. The starter almost always calls for a white, even when it is hot. The main course decides the evening's dominant colour: red meat, a structured red; poultry or fish, a full-bodied white or a light red. The cheese is the only moment when you can, without error, go back to white or step up a notch in red. Dessert does not call for red: sparkling or a sweet wine, in small quantities. The order of the wines, glass by glass: in what order to serve wines.
Three questions are enough to get it right. Is the main course red or white meat? Is the sauce rich or acidic? Is the meal served at table or as a buffet? Meat in a red wine sauce calls for an older Médoc than a grilled cut; fish in beurre blanc takes a richer Pessac-Léognan than steamed fish; a buffet leans towards white and rosé, because people eat standing up and cold.
Three classic menus, three lines of wine
What the menu changes in the quantities
The quantity calculator counts one third white and two thirds red for a seated meal. That setting works for a meat menu. As soon as the main course is fish, the proportion almost reverses, and if the starter is already a white, nearly the whole meal is drunk white. The table gives the order of magnitude for 100 guests; the calculator then lets you set the split by hand.
| Menu | Share of white | Red / white for 100 | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meat | 35% | 30 / 18 | White with the starter, red with the main and the cheese. |
| Fish | 50 to 60% | 18 / 30 | White with the starter and the main, a light red with the cheese. |
| Vegetarian | 40 to 50% | 24 / 24 | The two colours share the main course depending on the sauce. |
| Buffet | 50% | 18 / 18, plus rosé | Standing and cold: white, rosé, and a supple red. |
Do you need a different wine for each course?
No, two are enough at most weddings: a white for the starter, a red for the main and the cheese, and the sparkling comes back at dessert. A third wine is only justified if the main and the cheese have nothing in common, for example a fish followed by a board of well-aged cheeses.
Which wine with a dish in sauce?
The sauce matters more than the meat. A red wine sauce calls for a Médoc with some age; a cream sauce or a beurre blanc, a full-bodied white from Pessac-Léognan or Graves, even with poultry. An acidic sauce, with lemon or vinegar, needs a young, lively white.
Can you serve red with fish?
Yes, with firm-fleshed fish such as monkfish or salmon, with a light, young red served cool. With sole or sea bass, no: the tannin hardens the fish. The fish page goes through the cases.
Which wine with foie gras as a starter?
A sweet wine in small quantities, half a bottle for eight guests, or a dry white if you don't want sugar before the main course. The foie gras page compares the two options and gives the quantities.
Which wine for the main course at a wedding?
For red meat, a Médoc 4 to 8 years old or a slightly younger Saint-Émilion; the lamb and beef pages go into detail. For fish, a white Pessac-Léognan. The main course accounts for half the meal's wine budget: it is the one to choose with care, and the page wedding wine explains where to put the money.