Wine-ing

If you are lucky enough to have a Total Wine and More in your area and are looking to purchase vino for your wedding, run, don't walk there as fast as you can because total bliss awaits you. It's a happy place--a clean place--and the people actually know what they are talking about and can explain things to you without using wine buzzwords to make themselves sound knowledgeable.

Source

This weekend, in addition to multiple birthday celebrations for Mr. Goodlaff, we went with FMIL and FSFIL Goodlaff to our "local" Total Wine store in Rocklin to pick out the wine for the wedding. We walked out with five cases (a mix of sixty bottles) of what we both hope and know to be really great wine! Now, I went to school in Sonoma, so you would think I would have learned more about wine than I did, but sadly that's not the case. I pick wine by price first and a pretty label second. Sometimes it works and I find tasty wine, other times not so much.

What was great about Total Wine was Michael, the Assistant Manager who helped us. We walked in with a vague idea of the amount of wine needed and a semi-budget, and instead of scoffing at our $0-10 a bottle figure, he took us around to all the wine sections, asked us about our wine preferences, and recommended wines based on what we said we liked. He kept us under budget, pointed us in the direction of some of his favorites in our price range, and helped us fill our carts.

All in all, Michael probably spent between 20-40 minutes helping us choose our vino, and we never felt rushed, nor did we feel embarrassed because we didn't have $30 to spend on each bottle.

We walked out of there with so much more than a white wine and a red wine.  Our cart held:
Sauvignon Blanc
Chardonnay
Pinot Grigio
Zinfandel
Merlot
Cabernet Sauvignon
Blended Red

Rounding out our drink menu is the choice of beer, champagne, lemonade, soda, water, and coffee! Yum!  I really can't say enough good things about our experience there, and it's such a relief to have a partially stocked bar for wedding day!

How did you stock your wedding bar?