Wedding Bubbly Booze Suggestions?

Lexxi

That's a great idea!
We don't like champagne and someone sugggested the cava for new year and we both reallly like it, I don't give a stuff what anyone else thinks of it :rotfl: although I am sort of having a champagne theme without having champagne

paulwf

Cash n carry generally isn't the best option, when supermarkets have an offer on (Sainsburys, Marks, and sometimes Tesco and Waitrose have 25% off) there is no way they can get close.

One poster mentions Asti, it should be noted that this is a very sweet sparkling wine, and IMHO is nothing like champagne. If you like very sweet wines then it's great but don't view it as a champagne substitute. There is a case for serving sweet "party wines" for toasts as everybody has a glass even those that don't like wine and most people can knock back a glass of sweet wine when a dry champagne would be harder to drink. On the other hand if you are serving to regular wine drinkers I'd avoid Asti...that's just my personal view of course.

Any champagne worth having is likely to be £15 a bottle with an offer on so about £20 if you were buying a single bottle at rrp. Any cheaper champagne is probably going to be inferior to a good alternative from elsewhere.

There are other regions in France that produce sparkling wines, plus Cava from Spain, Prosecco from Italy (getting very popular now and can be very high quality), Australia/New Zealand produces a few good sparklers and you might even find a few from the US.

My suggestion would be to not worry about the geography but rather choose by the desired sweetness. Most supermarket wines will now come with a sweetness scale from 1-10. Alternatively a dry champagne is labelled as brut, semi sweet as demi-sec and sweet as sec. My preference would be a compromise between the sweet Asti party wine approach and a bone dry champagne as the middle ground is likely to appeal to most parties That would be a demi-sec or about 3-4 on the sweetness scale out of 10.

I used to work for M&S and there is usually a 10% discount on 6 mixed bottles, and sometimes there is a 25% offer, usually to coincide with offers from Sainsburys. I have tried loads of Marks wines and have found them to be good value and at genuine prices, a lot of other supermarket do so called half price offers on obscure wine when you end up paying the real price.

Anyway find some offers and if you find e.g. a brand of cava that does a dry and semi-sweet version try one of each and see what suits before you bulk buy.

Gloomendoom

We had cava. My parents did a booze cruise to France and got a really good deal for all the wine and bubbly from Majestic.

Out of 120 bottles of cava we had six left at the end of the day.

spugzbunny

Personally I think Prosecco is the nicest of the cheap champagne substitues - I've made it my mission to try a fair few lol! At New Years I picked up 3 for £10 in COOP and I also had a £2 off voucher for spending £20. If you are a member of COOP they are always giving out those vouchers although I guess it means keeping your eyes peeled for offers and doing a few repeat trips!

caitlyn22

I am definitely not an expert on champagne but can speak volumes about cheap as chips sparkly fizz! I have to say, Marks & Spencers sparkly range is the best quality and value I've come across. I drink their pink fizz (which sadly replaced their Pomegranate and Raspberry fizz but is equally as brilliant) and the best thing is that I haven't met a single person who doesn't like it! My boyfriend was converted instantly and after deciding it was far nicer than beer (!), now gets it out first at parties we have - he's converted all of his mates too!

They also do an apple and ginger one and a mojito one, all lovely and currently 2 for £6. :beer:

Gloomendoom

caitlyn22 wrote: »

My boyfriend was converted instantly and after deciding it was far nicer than beer (!)

Sorry, that just isn't possible!

He (and all his mates) need to hand in their man cards. Now!

caitlyn22

Gloomendoom wrote: »

He (and all his mates) need to hand in their man cards. Now!

I've said the same! I'm not against men drinking pink sparkly fizz and of course I am pleased he's stopped referring to it as 'gay pop', however it generally means there's less of it for me...

Cat72

Why dont you use the codes for money off at tesco and siansburys. Again I would go with a fizzy wine and if you use the £10 off £50 spend fro tesco that will help too.

Or how about this

Celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal has proved that price doesn't matter by passing off sparkling Blue Nun as expensive champagne.
As part of his popular ‘Feast' television series the chef paid homage to the 1980s .

Heston challenged today's city worker's taste buds to a blind tasting between an expensive top champagne and a more affordable sparkling Blue Nun.
And in true 1980s style he used a Sodastream to add extra fizz to the cheaper Blue Nun variety.

Amazingly, more than 50% of those who tried the two varieties thought the sparkling Blue Nun was real champagne.

Lexxi

Do you have a credit card? Some have offers with them, my virgin card gives you a discount if you buy with credit card, obviously will only be MSE if there's nothing on the card and you can pay it off without gaining any interest

bigbadandy

Best to buy the stuff online and get it delivered to your door (or the venue). This website shows reviews of all types of wine, you can search for sparkling wine or champagne www.supermarketwinereviews.com plus it shows the latest special offers. Most of supermarkets and wine merchants have decent offers on all the time.

I did the trip to France for my wedding but I don't think the trip to France is worth with the exchange rate as it is and the cost and effort of getting there.