How many types of wine for reception?

I think both Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir are very popular, food-friendly choices, and one red/one white is a common wine menu at weddings. If you are able to buy wine somewhere you can return unopened bottles, then go ahead and get some Cabernet, too, but otherwise, I would stick with your two choices.

I'd say 1 red, 1 white, and 1 sparkling is perfect. I think your choices are perfectly common and acceptable and I'd stick with it!

You answered your own question: “it isn’t a wine drinking group”. Ask your wine drinking guests what they prefer. What internet strangers drink and what your guests drink can and will vary wildly.


Generally 1 red and 1 white is sufficient. Make sure wherever you purchase alcohol let’s you return unopened leftovers.

I had the 4 types , 2 whites 2 reds, but we’re wine people and a big wine crowd. To me the options are good because there’s a big difference between varietals. I know a lot of people who wouldn’t be happy with just the Pinot noir and Pinot Grigio (myself included tbh). We did go through our guest list and note what we know each person to usually go for as best we could before choosing our selections….I will say we did a cab and Pinot noir for reds and ended up returning a whole case of the Pinot (wine you can return is the best wine!) . I think it’s also okay to get a small quantity of something if you know it is a VIP guest’s go to! My mom basically only drinks Chardonnay so there was no way I was skipping that!

I’m having four bottles per table of 10. Two reds and two whites. Merlot and PInoir and Cab Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio. This in addition to an open bar.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate your input.

If you are trying to please your FMIL then it could be a good idea to get a few bottles of Cab Sav. Both Pinot Noir and Cab Sav are good reds to drink with food. I think Cab Sav might be slightly more popular but that is based on my personal experience, not statistics or facts.

I think our venue offers 2 reds and 2 whites. There's a fair amount of wine people on our guest list, so I like that they have the option between 2 different varietals within their color of choice. Depending on your budget and what kinds of deals the place you're ordering from has, you could split the budget 4 ways and do a 2 and 2 if you think that would be something your wine-drinking guests would appreciate. Otherwise, maybe just a few bottles of what FMIL likes would probably be a good solution.

I would say you should have 4 options: a sweet white, dry white, sweet red, dry red. That way everyone's tastes are relatively well accommodated.

I would have `1 red wine, 1 white wine, 1 sparkling wine.