Pairings · vegetarian menu
What wine goes with a vegetarian menu?
More and more weddings serve a vegetarian menu to everyone, or to one table in five. The wine follows: more dry white, rosé or clairet, a light red with mushroom dishes, and almost never the big tannic Médoc meant for meat. The split changes, not the quantity. The calculator below places the vegetarian menu in the wine line-up; the page then says what to buy dish by dish, and how to handle a vegetarian table in the middle of a meat meal.
The vegetarian menu in your wine line-up
The main course is preset to the vegetarian menu. Change the starter and the dessert: the share of white, already high, is recalculated.
Vegetables, mushrooms, cheeses: three dishes, three wines
Roast vegetables, thin tart, vegetable risotto
Freshness and lightness: a young Sauvignon and Sémillon white, served at 9 °C. It is the wine that replaces the main-course red on a vegetarian menu, and it costs less.
Spicy dishes, Mediterranean dishes, buffet
Ratatouille, vegetable tagine, mezze: clairet, the dark rosé that is a Bordeaux speciality, has enough body for the spices and is served cool. It also bridges the meat tables and the vegetarian tables. For a couscous or a tagine with meat, see what wine with couscous or tagine.
Mushrooms, lentils, brown-sauce dishes
The one case where red is essential: mushrooms and pulses have the umami that calls for a supple, low-tannin red served at 15 °C. No big Médoc: nothing on the plate will soften it.
The split changes, not the quantity
A seated meal for 100 guests drinks one bottle for every two people, whatever the menu: three glasses per drinker over the meal. What changes is the colour. For a meat menu, the calculator starts from 65% red and 35% white; for a vegetarian menu, it is almost reversed: 50 to 60% white, 20 to 30% rosé or clairet, 15 to 25% light red. The budget automatically drops, because dry whites and clairets from Bordeaux cost less than reds for laying down; the money saved goes on the sparkling or the starter.
The most common case is not the all-vegetarian menu but the vegetarian table in the middle of a meat meal. Don't create a separate wine: keep the starter white available to that table during the main course, and serve it the same light red as everyone else if the menu includes mushrooms. One extra bottle of white per vegetarian table is enough. The wedding meal wine page details the service logistics table by table.
How many bottles, and what colour
| Meal | Guests | White | Rosé, clairet | Light red |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family dinner | 12 | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Vegetarian wedding meal | 100 | 24 to 30 | 12 | 12 |
| Meat meal with 2 vegetarian tables | 100 | + 2 bottles | — | the shared red |
Orders of magnitude for the main course and the cheese, margin and rounding up to the case included. The menu calculator shows the exact share of each colour.
What wine goes with a vegetarian meal?
Mostly dry white, young white Bordeaux or Entre-deux-Mers, rosé or clairet with spicy dishes, and a light red of two to four years only with mushrooms and pulses. A big tannic red has nothing on the plate to soften it: leave it for meat menus.
Does a vegetarian menu change the quantity of wine?
No, one bottle for two at the meal remains the rule. It changes the split: the share of white rises from 35% to 50 or 60%, rosé appears, red drops below 25%. The budget goes down a little, because dry whites and clairets cost less than reds for laying down.
What wine for a vegetarian table at a meat meal?
The starter white, left available to that table during the main course, plus the shared light red if the menu includes mushrooms. One extra bottle of white per vegetarian table is enough; no need to create a separate wine the waiters will have to keep track of.
Are there organic or vegan Bordeaux wines for a wedding?
Yes, in white as in red, and more and more of them. We offer them on request in the quote, at a comparable or slightly higher price; the certification appears on the label. The fish page covers the similar case where the share of white also rises, and the pairing guide puts the full wine line-up together.