Made Wine for my Son's Wedding

[analog_kidd]

My son got married a few weeks ago. I knew a year ago I wanted to make some wine for the wedding. I wanted it to be quality wine, so I splurged on a decent kit of Pinot Noir. It turned out very nice. We had special labels printed up with a picture of them ans a nice note on the back.

As the wedding approached, we started making plans for the rehearsal dinner and wedding reception that we were going to use the wine for and both places said that we could not provide any alcohol. Each place wanted to provide the wine / liquor from their own stock, at their inflated prices.

The groom and more importantly the bride had already settled on these locations, and we wanted them each to have the wedding they wanted, so we didn't press the issue. But, here we were with 30 bottles of wine and nowhere to drink them. (I know, bad problem to have, right?)

Anyway, my amazing wife came up with the idea to give the wine away to every family at the rehearsal dinner, which got rid of most of it, but the really great idea she had was to put one bottle on each of the five tables at the dinner. She hung a label on each of the bottles with a number on each one, 1 - 5. She also included some gold colored Sharpie style pens she found and a note on each table to write a note to the happy couple. The idea is they open each bottle on the first thru fifth anniversaries and read the notes their friends and family wrote to them.

Well, let me tell you it was a hit! Every single person I spoke to at the rehearsal or wedding told me what a great idea that was and how cool they thought it was. The kids were touched by the gesture. Most of the folks that got a bottle to take home said they were going to save it and drink it on their anniversary too. I even had someone who does not drink say they were going to take a bottle and save it for the anniversary too.

Too bad for me, but there was only one bottle left over for me and my wife. I guess we'll be saving it for a year too.

 

[seth8530]

Very cool idea. BTW, cool to see another fella from the Knoxville area on the board!

 

[Duster]

What A great Idea, I often hear of people want to make wine for a wedding but it is possible to run into so many hurdles. This way a couple of gallons can go a long way.

 

[Boatboy24]

That is a great idea. Glad it worked out, but sorry you don't have more than a bottle left.

 

[JohnT]

I would save the one bottle that you have, and open it up during the christening of your first grandchild.

My niece got married last Christmas time. For her rehersal dinner she wanted a BIG bottle of our wine. I searched the internet and was just shocked at how expensive they were. For a 3 liter jeroboam (3 liters) with shipping, we were talking over $50.

While still considering the price, I wondered into a wine store and noticed a display for some Italian Borolo. This display was a large bottle (A methuselah - six liters in volume) that was empty, but had a cap and label. I checked out the glass and this was the real deal. It was just asking to be filled up.

I went to the clerk (an Indian gentleman) and asked "how much for the big bottle".

In broken english, he says: "OH Sir, dat is not fer sale. it is only des-play".

I smile. I know that everyboy has his price.
"I'll give you $20" I offer.

The clerk just looks at me in stunned silence. In his mind, I know that he is wondering why some idiot is willing to pay good money for an empty wine bottle.

"OK, I'll give you $25, but that is as high as I am going to go".

Next thing I know, and without another word, the clerk is ringing me up for $25 worth of "miscellaneous goods". I Gotta laugh. I got a 6 liter methuselah for half the cost of a 3 liter jeroboam!

I scrubed off the label (came off real easy) and washed the bottle. Since the bottle was used for disply and never had been filled, washing was real easy. I fashioned a cork from a #16 stopper, filled and the corked the bottle using a rubber mallet. To test the seal, I laid the bottle down for about an hour and found that there was not a single drop of leakage. After applying a label that I created from one of their engagement photos, it looked real nice!

When my niece saw the bottle, her eyes lit up! She served the wine at the rehersal dinner (I was not in the bridal party, so I was not invited). It took two waiters to open the bottle. It was a big hit and the bottle came home empty.

Right after the wedding, the happy couple moved down south. Next week, I will be vacationing in Georgia and I will get to see them for a couple of days. I Can't wait to see her face when I give her the 8 cases of "wedding wine" that I am bringing down with me!

 

[ibglowin]

Sounds like everything worked out OK in the end, we had no problem serving nothing but wine I made last Summer at our daughters wedding, but then they got married in our back yard. Turned out beautiful but it was a lot of work to get things ready!

 

[wineforfun]

What A great Idea, I often hear of people want to make wine for a wedding but it is possible to run into so many hurdles. This way a couple of gallons can go a long way.

Duster,
I want that glass in your avatar. I think it would be ok then when I say I only have 1 glass of wine per night.

 

[analog_kidd]

I forgot to mention another great idea my wife had for the wedding. We kind of went with the wine theme, flowers under wine glasses for centerpieces. But, the really cool thing she did was take corks and cut a sliver off the edge to give it a flat spot to keep it from rolling, then opposite from the flat spot cut a groove down the length of the cork. She made place cards with everyone's names and put them in the slit. It turned out great.

I pulled this picture from the web, these are not ours, but this is the idea.

 

[ibglowin]

Man we travelled down some of the same roads.....

http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/f19/cork-wreath-36867/#post406700

 

[jschoenly]

We did quite a Wine Theme for our wedding last fall as well. I similarly did the trimmed and cut corks for the name cards. We chose our favorite Winery's we visited in NY over the last few years (and a few others for jokes) to use as the "Table Names". The Table markers were full bottles with a half cork glued to another seal to hold the table name. Additionally, we then gave away the bottles for the "salt shaker pass"....

Going one further, the cake was decorated with a vineyard and had a special topper loosely modeled after my irrigation tank setup I constructed in our vineyard... Fun Stuff!

 

[ibglowin]

Very cool.

Love the oak barrel tower!

 

[Pumpkinman]

This is great! What a good feeling to have made wine to honor your daughter and son in law.
My daughter has requested that I make wine for her wedding as well, since there are no plans for her to marry in the near future, I think that I need to make Merlot and give it a few years of aging, and possibly a Pinot Grigio and Asti Spumante type sparkling wine. The Spumante and Merlot would really benefit from aging, and the Pinot Grigio is a favorite of everyone that has tried it

 

[saramc]

Kudos on the wedding wine project. I made wine (raspberry mead and raspberry skeeter pee, the SP was at the request of the 90yr old grandmother who giggled hysterically when anyone said 'pee') for a very good friends wedding last year. They opened one of the five bottles of mead they saved as they celebrated their first anniversary in June. I still get all smiley faced thinking about how much joy that brought me. And they now want to make the mead on their own, so I get to give lessons via Skype.

 

[robie]

Kudos on the wedding wine project. I made wine (raspberry mead and raspberry skeeter pee, the SP was at the request of the 90yr old grandmother who giggled hysterically when anyone said 'pee') for a very good friends wedding last year. They opened one of the five bottles of mead they saved as they celebrated their first anniversary in June. I still get all smiley faced thinking about how much joy that brought me. And they now want to make the mead on their own, so I get to give lessons via Skype.

Very good, Sara! I am getting ready to make my very first batch of SP. Not sure if I will flavor it with something else or not... still thinking about it.