How To Pick The Right Wine For Your Meal

At some point or another we have all been here, trying to choose wine. We’re sitting in the restaurant, looking at the list of wines wondering which is the right one for our food. Sometimes you can really run into trouble either because you are not familiar the wines that are being offered at the certain restaurant or even worse; you may not be educated on any wines at all!

And the situation can be even worse, you may have a date with you with this happening to you (oh you’ve been there? Sorry!) Then you need to keep reading this article, it could keep you from being in these awkward situations, and put you in charge the next time you have to order wine.

If you’re the experimental type, we recommend joining a wine of the month club so you can experimenting with wine pairings from the comfort of your own home. 

Many know the old thing of having the red wine with meats such as beef or sauces that are red, or have white wine with fish, white meats and sauces. There is a bit of truth in this statement, but that is not all to know when it comes to choosing the wine to go with foods.

Some reds are excellent with seafood, such as Cote Du Rhone, whose Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre grapes provide a smoky, pleasantly mineral taste which compliments many fish dishes as well as any Sauvignon Blanc. Wines produced from the Gamay grape are also a good pairing with seafood and even turkey and duck dishes.

Conversely, there are whites which are excellent with tomato-laden dishes. One example is again Sauvignon Blanc (OK, you may not want to drink it with your spaghetti marinara, but it is excellent IN marinara sauce! Something to remember when cooking at home). Speaking of this wine, it is an easy pairing for many foods – think lemon and cream here. Anything which would go well with lemon (poultry, salads, seafood) works well with this wine. It also provides a good contrast to heavier, creamy sauces.

The first rule to remember as far as pairing wines with certain foods is take the flavors of the food into consideration. Say you are going to have barbecue (barbecue and wine? Are you serious?) You should serve red wine here, and one that has a good body and/or acidity not to be overshadowed by the vibrant flavor of the sauce. One wine that is too soft for this is the Cabernet but it is served sometimes. Wines that would be better served with barbecue would be either Italian Barbera, which has high acidity, or you could serve the Valpolicella, which certainly has good enough body to hold up to barbecue sauce. Another great choice for this kind of feast would be one of the red Zinfandel, that has black cherry and pepper flavors and are great when served with meats that are grilled.

So how about whites? Again, we’ll go with the grill, given that grilled foods are a perennial restaurant option (and spring is right around the corner). Some good white wine pairings are a crisp, dry white such as a Semillon or a Pinot Grigio with grilled vegetables, salads and even fruit (melon is an especially good pairing with these two whites). These are also good with a variety of cheeses ranging from mild Gouda and Havarti to strong blues.

Of course, there is more information on this subject than we have covered here, but maybe this will help you know how to start exploring your options on wine pairing, and you only have to like the pairing yourself for it to be good. And what a delicious project to have to research, you will definitely not mind tasting and testing the fare. An easy way to start trying all these combinations – join a wine of the month club.Eat, Drink (wine of course!) and be Merry!