Thank you so much to everyone that joined us for our screening of 'Four Weddings and a Funeral with Fizz' at The Electric on Saturday night.
Read on for details on all the wines from the evening, our gallery of photos, and bunch of trivia.
As promised, these are the wines we enjoyed ...
Four Weddings and Five Wines
Aqualta Prosecco DOC, Treviso, Italy, Majestic £9.99
(or £7.99 as part of a mixed case of six)
A fantastic value Prosecco commissioned especially for Majestic. At our Prosecco lunches this has proven more popular than other more expensive Proseccos.
Glera grapes grown in Treviso, North Eastern Italy.
Apple and Pear on the nose with a fresh, delicate, balanced blend of acidity & softness
'Taste The Difference' Cremant d’Alsace, Sainsbury's £12.00
Tony's favourite wine region, Alsace in Eastern France, nestled between Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and protected by the Vosges mountains.
Made from Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris grapes.
Flavour's of orchard fruit, buttery brioche and lemon curd notes.
Freixenet Cordon Negro Cava, Penedes, Spain
Tesco £10 but currently on offer as Asda for just £8!
This is an Elvin household favourite and Cava, pound for pound, has got to be the best value sparkling wine on the market
Made in the Traditional method (secondary fermentation in the bottle) using indigenous grapes Xarelo, Macabeo, Parellada
Freixenet is a family owned winery of some 120 years
The grapes are grown on the steep hills of Penedes near Barcelona in Catalunya.
Due to their loss in market share to Prosecco, they have bought up land in North Eastern Italy to make Prosecco too, and it's great. You've probably see their beautiful Freixenet Prosecco.
Apple, citrus and spice on the nose, with zesty apple, ripe pear and crystallised ginger on the palate.
Réserve Hospitaliers Cairanne, Cru des Côtes du Rhône - Waitrose £11.99
Enjoying beef or goose on Christmas Day? .. this is the one. Bolder, more intense than the last red but still smooth and easy drinking. Vanilla, chocolate and Morello Cherries on the nose, black cherries and bramble on the palate with a touch of cinnamon and close .. very festive.
Champagne Veuve Monsigny, Aldi £14.99
Vivino reviewers put this in the top 13% of wines from Champagne and top 9% of wines in the world.
'Fine Wine Masters' in their review say it tastes like Laurent Perrier but makes you want to go back for glass after glass like Dom Perignon, regularly beating the world’s top champagnes in blind tasting.
This is a traditional Champagne featuring the three key Champagne grapes, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.
Produced for Aldi by Philizot & Fils, the Champagne is cellar aged to generate more character and depth in the wine.
Sales of this Champagne are second only to Moet et Chandon in the UK.
Brioche and citrus on the nose, soft red fruits, ripe apples and floral notes on the palate with a good long finish.
A few Wedding photos
Four Weddings Trivia
Some highlights from our movie trivia ...
Inspiration for the movie came from Richard Curtis calculating that he’s been to 72 weddings in 10 years and his regret at declining a one night stand offer at a wedding.
For several years this was the highest grossing uk movie .. $260 million.
Filmed in just 36 days during 1993, due to the low budget. They couldn’t even afford to go to Scotland for Scottish scenes
This was the first of five movies between Curtis and Grant, but what are the others?
Notting Hill 1999, Bridget Jones 2001, Love Actually 2003, Bridget Jones Two 2004
Alternative names for the movie before they settled on Four Weddings and a Funeral were all awful and included: True Love & Near Misses, Loitering in Sacred Places, Rolling in the Aisles and Skulking Around.
Although Grant has appeared in five Curtis movies, this was the movie that launched his career.
That's despite them auditioning 70 actors before finding Hugh Grant. For the audition Grant played a video of his Best Man's speech from his brother's wedding.
Other actors considered to play the part of Charles were Alan Rickman (Curtis really wanted him to do it but felt he was perhaps too old), Tim Roth and Griff Rhys Jones.
Phoebe Cates was offered the role of Carrie, she suggested that Tim Roth play the part of Charles.
Sarah Jessica Parker auditioned for the part of Carrie. Marissa Tomei, Mel Griffiths & Brooke Shields all turned the role down. Jeanne Tripplehorn was actually cast but pulled out when he Mother died suddenly before filming.
Shrewd Andie MacDowell waived her fee to take % cut of the profits. She earnt $2 million versus Hugh’s $100k.
Backstories for how everyone knew each other were featured a in deleted scene - Charles (Hugh Grant), Matthew (John Hannah), and Fiona (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas) were at university together, and Gareth (Simon Callow) was a lecturer. Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman) was found under Charles' kitchen table after a party and lived there since. By removing this scene they were suggesting that they all met by attending many Weddings together over the years and building a friendship.
Rowan Atkinson says this is the favourite movie he’s been in, but he was almost not cast due to the small part he would play. Curtis didn't want to insult him by giving such a big star at the time such a small part. Michael Sheen was originally lined up to play the vicar.
There is a Chinese subtitled version. In it Atkinson is labelled as Mr Bean or Silly Bean as he is known, even though it's a totally different character.
Dame Kristen Scott Thomas provided her own dialogue for the French version dubbed version.
This was the first Brit movie to win a Cesar (French Oscar)
Hugh Grant, Richard Curtis and many of cast were not happy with Mike Newell’s direction. Then after watching the movie, they were not even happy with final product. It then became a massive hit, as we know, and Grant later realised Newell’s directing, making the humour more grounded and awkward instead of light hearted was absolutely key.
Love is All Around features in this and Love Actually – there is a sub plot connection of Billy Mack making a cover of it in Love Actually.
The Wet Wet Wet version was no.1 for 15 weeks .. arghh.
A scene cut from Four Weddings later appears in Love Actually where a character is trolling about the catering, unwittingly to the caterer.
There is a sequel – One red nose and a wedding, featuring most of the cast.
Hugh Grant’s brother is played by a deaf actor and Hugh Grant learnt sign language for the movie.
At the first American screening there was a mass walkout after the first scene, it was a Mormon filled town that were hugely offended by the swearing.
American financiers had a huge issue with all the cursing and actually managed to get some Fs turned into Buggers for a more family friendly version. They also insisted on no oral sex, and no excessive thrusting or screaming in sex scenes.
At the UK Premiere, 10% of the audience wore Wedding Dresses. It was this same premiere that Hugh Grant was upstaged by his then girlfriend's dress. It was of course Liz Hurley's black Versace number with all the pins.
Extras at the weddings wore their own wedding clothes and were filmed twice to save money in production.
Thank you!
We look forward to welcoming you back to another of our events very soon but why not check out our website or sign up to our monthly mailing list to find out about new events first:
Tony and the Wine Events Co Crew
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