Toast with genuine champagne on your wedding day – the ultimate guide

What is genuine champagne?

For many people, serving champagne at their wedding is a time-honoured tradition that adds a touch of luxury to the celebrations. A well-chilled glass of champagne at a wedding is the ultimate way to welcome guests and toast to love.

Champagne is the perfect drink for everything a wedding stands for! No drink is more closely associated with parties and celebrations than champagne, this elegant, flavourful wine with its joy-inducing bubbles.

Forget all other types of sparkling wine for a moment – here we’ll focus solely on the genuine article, which comes from the Champagne region in northern France. The production of champagne is governed by numerous and strict rules. This attention to detail is, of course, reflected in the drink’s high price and, consequently, its exclusivity. But if the bottle says ‘champagne’, it guarantees a taste experience beyond what other sparkling wines can offer!

Different types of champagne for weddings

There are several varieties to choose from, depending on your taste and wedding menu:

Prestige & Vintage: For those extra-special occasions, made from the finest grapes of a specific year.

Standard Champagne (Non-Vintage): A blend of different vintages, often based on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Blanc de Blancs: Made exclusively from white Chardonnay grapes – fresh and elegant, perfect as a welcome toast.

Blanc de Noirs: Made exclusively from red grapes (Pinot) – more full-bodied and pairs well with food.

Rosé Champagne (Rosé): A romantic colour that looks fantastic in photos and is perfect for both socialising and dessert.

When should champagne be served?

Champagne is incredibly versatile and can enhance many aspects of a wedding:

Champagne breakfast: A luxurious way to start your first day as a married couple.

Welcome toast / Bridal toast: The classic moment when guests welcome the bride and groom.

Drink throughout the meal: Perfect with fish, seafood and even lighter meat dishes during dinner.

Wedding cake & dessert: Choose a slightly sweeter variety (Demi-Sec) to complement the sweetness of the cake.

Food and champagne

Standard champagnes – blends of white and red grapes – are often excellent both for toasting and for accompanying fish and seafood dishes. It is also a worthy accompaniment to the wedding cake! Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs are excellent as dining wines for lighter meat dishes, for example.

Flavourful champagnes, such as vintage champagnes, pair well with heartier fish dishes, poultry and lighter meat dishes. For desserts, a semi-dry champagne is a good choice. Rosé champagne can be excellent as a bridal toast or for breakfast the following day – and if it’s a really fine and flavourful rosé champagne, it can actually be served with heartier meat dishes! In other words, champagne is a fantastically versatile wine with many different pairing possibilities.

Calculating the quantity: How many bottles are needed?

Standard champagnes can be stored for one or two years. More exclusive champagnes can be stored for many years under the right conditions – in some cases, up to fifteen years! Ask at Systembolaget or your agent/supplier. If you have any leftover champagne that you do not wish to drink and it was purchased from Systembolaget, you can return the bottles and get a refund.

Leftover champagne is excellent for cooking – just like ordinary white wine. You can keep it in the fridge for up to a couple of weeks (or longer in the freezer) and use it for cooking, such as in sauces (both savoury and dessert sauces), soups and stews. The most elegant option, of course, is to make a champagne sorbet.

Recipe: Luxury Champagne Sorbet

Ingredients:

2 ½ dl sugar syrup

375 ml champagne

1 gelatine leaf

juice of half a lemon

1 egg white, whisked with a balloon whisk for a couple of minutes

Make the sugar syrup: Boil 3 1/3 dl water with 180 g caster sugar and 25 g honey for 2–3 minutes in a saucepan with the lid slightly ajar, then leave to cool. Can be stored in the fridge for a couple of weeks.
Method:
Soak the gelatine leaf, then gently dissolve it in a couple of tablespoons of the sugar syrup. Then mix in the remaining ingredients and freeze the mixture in an ice-cream maker. After about 10 minutes, whisk or stir the mixture so that the egg white is thoroughly combined with the other ingredients. Continue freezing in the ice-cream maker and then in the freezer.

Non-alcoholic alternatives

Don’t forget to offer a high-quality non-alcoholic sparkling wine. There are some fantastic options available today that are of the same high standard and ensure that all guests feel included in the toast.

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