How to choose the right wine to go with a meal
Choosing a good wine can be a nightmare, especially if you’ve got someone to impress. You’re having a dinner party – you’ve planned the menu thoroughly, dusted off your best crockery and wine glasses, and got everything prepared – except for the wine selection. There’s just so much to consider, and it always seems like everyone else knows so much more than you do about it. You stand there for ages looking at the seemingly endless shelves of bottles, and the more you wonder about it the harder it gets. That’s why we’ve put together a few tips for what to look for and how to choose the perfect wine.
Firstly and most importantly, you need to match the wine to the meal you have chosen. Everyone has different opinions of which wine will taste good with different foods, but there are a few basic rules that you can follow if you’re really not sure. The easiest way is just to match the colour of the wine to the food, you can’t go wrong. If you’re eating red meat select a dark red Cabernet or Syrah. For lamb or pork a medium bodied red like a Merlot will be less heavy whilst still giving a rich flavour. Chicken and fish dishes can often be overpowered by reds so it’s best to go for a crisp white instead, perhaps a Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. If it’s a special occasion or celebration, you might be better off with a sparkling wine, served in fancy Champagne flutes.
Once you’ve worked out what kind of wine you are looking for, check where it was made. Wines from different regions will be hugely different in quality, so it pays to do a bit of research into the best regions. If you’re not sure, France is always a good bet and has been producing good quality fine wines for hundreds of years. Italy is another one, and Chilean wines are also very popular at the moment, particularly reds.
Another thing you should check is the vintage of the wines you are choosing from, or the year they were bottled. A real wine buff will know which were the good years for each region, and will buy only vintages which they know came from a particularly good crop. For the rest of us, it can seem like a lot of guesswork, but if you know the basics you’ll be on the right track at least. That all wines get better the older they are is a common misconception. It’s true that most red wines improve with a little aging, but most wineries won’t distribute these wines for a couple of years after bottling to give them time to mature. This means by the time they become available to buy they are ready to drink and will taste good. Most white or sparkling wines don’t need any aging, and are good to drink right away.
