With a new nuptial season bursting into flower, I've been thinking about weddings. The standard package seems to involve more crazy expense, more exhausting organisation, more nerve-jangling stress than you'd expect of an EU Summit - and that's before the wines have been taken into account. The less than happy couple might almost be forgiven for meekly agreeing to any old plonk - even if it tastes as appealing as a mouthful of soggy confetti.
In fact, the wedding trend is moving in the opposite direction. "People are paying much more attention to wine than they used to," says Frank Harrison, whose mobile bar service looked after the drinks at more than 40 weddings last year. "That's partly because of the growing interest in wine generally, but it's also because marquee weddings are becoming so popular. They're more personal, so people involve themselves closely in all the details, including the choice of wine."
Caterers large and small agree they are benefiting from the new marquee mania - not just by providing the food but often by supplying the wine too. Many of the larger firms have their own wine lists, offering a selection at prices similar to those typical of restaurants: twice the retail price seems standard. If clients want wines which aren't on the list, they generally offer to source them (as, indeed, many restaurants do) and a similar mark-up applies.
So far, so straightforward. But it seems that an increasing number of wedding hosts are deciding to the lay on the booze themselves. "About a third of our clients provide their own wine now," says Fran Murrin of With Taste Banqueting Services. Some people have their own supply-line, through the wine trade here or contacts abroad. Others make the excuse that they have been given wine as a present - admitting quietly to friends that they simply cannot bring themselves to pay the wine-list price.
The alternative, generally, involves paying a corkage charge. While figures vary, £5-£6 for each bottle is typical for table wine, £7-£8 not uncommon for sparkling wine or champagne. You don't have to be a Mensa member to see that, if you're opting for a relatively inexpensive wine - something costing £5.99 or £6.99 - it's hardly worth the hassle of buying it yourself for the few pounds you will save. Corkage only begins to make sense for more expensive wines. It becomes pretty compelling in the case of sparklers and champagne - especially if you buy them at a keen price in the first place. I'm reminded, once again, of all the airline staff who steadily amass duty-free fizz for their weddings - and of Oddbins's long-running offer of seven bottles for the price of six.
Not everybody approves of a corkage system, however. Fitzers, whose new Powerscourt catering facility is sure to be in high wedding-demand, no longer allows clients to supply their own wine. "We found it was just too messy," Sharon Fitzpatrick explains. "The wine would arrive at the last minute, so you wouldn't have time to chill the white while the red was freezing, or it mightn't be in time at all. Weddings are stressful enough without that." Instead, Fitzers has devised a new wedding wine list arranged by price - under £12, under £15, under £20.
Corkage may still be worth enquiring about - especially as some companies don't charge it at all. "If a client wants to bring in wine, that's perfectly all right with me: we make no extra charge," says Stephen Austen, who with his wife Louise runs a small company known for classy wedding food. Some in the wedding field, indeed, are prepared to source and sell wine at the usual retail price, making their profit in other ways. Frank Harrison, who charges a £50 set-up fee plus an hourly rate, often earns handsomely from a cash bar. Tara Fay of Zena Productions, a new company which will organise every aspect of your wedding to a pre-agreed budget, charges a single co-ordination fee.
What wines make good choices? While millionaires may splash out silly money, most people have sensibly cottoned on to the fact there 's no need to pay a fortune for a thoroughly quaffable white and red. There are plenty of goodies in the £5.99-£10 (retail) bracket. As there is also poison, the best advice is to invest time rather than money - tasting various bottles in conjunction with whatever type of food you plan to have. Caterers will often lay on a food-and-wine tasting if pressed, but even if they won't you can have endless fun conducting your own research.
Although many of the wedding wine-lists I've seen make me yawn with their predictability, it's probably not the time to be too individualistic. "Anything interesting is quite a hard sell," says Aine McCarthy of Masterchefs Apricot, which has just revamped its wine list. She speaks for the wedding market as a whole when she says the New World is the automatic choice for drinkability and value; France the classic reflex for bigger spenders who like the reassurance of familiar names - Chablis, Sancerre, Fleurie, Chateauneuf-du-Pape.
"You're into crowd-pleasing," says Gilbeys's Master of Wine, Martin Moran, "and that means easy, fruity wines that everybody can enjoy. A New World sparkler will be both cheaper and more appealing to most people than champagne. Then you need a fresh white and a soft, fruity red. People should put their snobbery aside and choose something like Beaujolais." At his own nuptials he served the Aussie fizz, Orlando Carrington Brut; a white he had helped to make in the south of England, no less, and a Cotes-du-Rhone-Villages. Sparkling wine and champagne are increasingly popular - not necessarily for the toast but for the initial reception. "Whether it's Bollinger or Angas Brut, I always encourage people to serve the fizz at the start because it sets the scene so well," says John McDonnell of the Whitethorn Restaurant in Ballyvaughan, a popular wedding spot. Although I confess I'd serve tuna on toast to the assembled throng myself if it meant being able to afford Bollinger or Billecart-Salmon, I can see the sense of humbler sparklers, many of which taste better than cheap champagne.
When it comes to choosing wines for the meal, you may be encouraged to pick a matching pair. White and red Penfolds Koonunga Hill, white and red Concha y Toro Casillero del Diablo, white and red Chateau Bonnet are just a few of countless popular two-tone twins. While there's nothing necessarily wrong with this practice, which primarily makes life easier for the orderer, why not be more imaginative? Any wine buffs present will appreciate a bit of extra variety - and perhaps a wider canvas than the usual Chile-Australia-France triangle. California and Spain are other good sources to plunder.
One final point to consider if you want bouquets for your wedding wines. Whatever you serve, it will taste 10 times better served in a decent wine glass rather than in the ubiquitous, mean-spirited Paris goblet.
Now start tasting, and find out the kind of thing you like. You'll also discover diligent wine research is a magic cure for prewedding stress.
Wedding list
New World sparklers:
Better than most cheap champagne are:
Lindauer Brut, Montana, NV (very widely available, usually £10.99). An endlessly popular New Zealand bubbly with broad, melony flavours - lively and upfront.
Graham Beck Brut NV (Verlings, Foleys Cabinteely, Grogans Ranelagh, Bennetts Howth, Spar Ballybrack, Fine Wines Limerick, usually about £11.99).
This well-made South African deserves to be much better known, having fooled many an expert with its champagne-like character. Subtle and quite complex.
Pelorus, Cloudy Bay, 1993 (Findlaters, Mitchells, Thomas Foxrock, Redmonds, Greenacres Wexford, Fine Wines Limerick and other outlets, usually £15.99-£16.99).
A stylish extrovert from a good home, with opulent, assertive flavours that linger splendidly. If Frank Harris is correct in his assertion that guests judge wines largely on smart label presentation, this designer-cool bottle is doubly a winner.
Honore de Berticot Sauvignon, Cotes de Duras, 1996 (Searsons, Pettitts, McCabes, Grapes of Mirth Rathmines, DeVine Wine Shop Castleknock, usually £5.99).
This January bottle of the week is the favourite white at Whitethorn receptions, and no wonder. Beautifully fresh, yet with rich, ripe character beneath. Simply amazing value.
Jurassique Chardonnay, Bourgogne, Jean-Marc Brocard, 1996 (Oddbins Baggot Street and Blackrock, £6.49).
White Burgundy fans, seek no further! See bottles of the week.
Carmen Sauvignon Blanc Reserva 1996 (McCabes, Higgins Clonskeagh, O'Donovans Cork, Lynchs Glanmire, McCambridges and Vineyard Galway, and other outlets, usually about £8.50).
The idea that Chile means cheap and uncomplicated needs to be overthrown. Here's a reserva Chilean which repays with real finesse the couple of extra pounds it costs.
Domaine de l'Hortus Coteaux du Languedoc 1996 (Wines Direct, £6.99). The red wine served at Fitzers glam Powerscourt bash earlier this month - and lapped up in quantities almost as prodigious as the Veuve Cliquot that went before it. A brilliant example of the soft, sun-ripened reds at which the south of France now excels.
Raimat Abadia 1994 (Superquinn, many SuperValus, Molloys, Vintry Rathgar, Deveneys and many other outlets, £7.99-£8.99; wholesale source Grants).
Aromas of raspberries and smoke, then a nice savoury bite . . . Here's proof from Penedes in Spain that a wine can be hugely popular without being boring. See Bottles of the Week.
Sebastiani Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 1993 (some Superquinns and SuperValus, Mortons Ranelagh, Deveneys Rosemount, Cheers Mala hide and other outlets, usually £8.99).
Ripe blackcurrant flavours with lashings of mint evolve into a pleasantly dry finish, making this a super-attractive Californian Cab.