Our recommendation to every wedding customer is to set aside twelve bottles of the wedding wine before the reception. The bottles do not go to the wedding. The bottles go directly into the couple's home cellar. The twelve bottles cover the first twelve anniversaries. One bottle per year, opened on the anniversary, the same label as the wedding.
The cellar setup
Twelve standard 750ml bottles fit comfortably on a single dedicated wine-fridge shelf. The fridge runs at fifty-five degrees, seventy percent humidity, indefinitely. The couple's twelve-year program is essentially passive after the wedding day. The bottle for year one is poured on the first anniversary; the bottle for year twelve waits on the shelf for eleven more years and emerges in the marriage's most reflective moment.
Mark them
Each of the twelve bottles gets a small foil hangtag with the year. ONE. TWO. THREE. UP TO TWELVE. The couple opens the bottle marked ONE on the first anniversary. The cellar shelf is the most legible private record of the marriage's first decade and change.
Beyond year twelve
Couples approaching year twelve often place an anniversary-program order, with twelve new bottles set aside for years thirteen through twenty-four. The brand line is the same. The crest is the same. Only the vintage moves forward. The marriage's wine cellar accumulates two-decade depth without any year requiring more than a single deliberate order.