Tips to make your meal smooth
- There are basically three kinds of wines; reds, whites and Sparkling. A red wine typically is usually a heavier and more complex wine, where a white wine is typically considered a lighter and sweeter wine. Sparkling wines, called Champagne if they come from a particular region in France, is a wine where the fermentation process causes the wine to bubble. Sparkling wines are unique and I will not go into too much detail with them other to say that they tend to go very well with appetizers or with the opening course in a meal.
- Red wines are normally considered a heartier and heavier wines and tend go well with red meats such as steak, with hearty pastas and with meats in heavier sauces. White wines are lighter and tend to go better with white meat such as chicken and fish and with lighter pastas in a cream sauce. As stated above these are simple guidelines and are not set rules, especially since both white and red wines have many varieties with different characteristics.
- Another determining factor in choosing a wine is what your guests and yourself prefer. Some people like white wines where other people would rather drink red. If a person does not enjoy a red wine it would be foolish to serve them a Cabernet Sauvignon just because you are serving a Lasagne. Luckily because of the many different kinds of red and white wines you can usually find a white or red wine to go with most foods.
- Pairing a wine with a particular food as I have said is often times a personal choice that depends on ones tastes and the one time non-breakable rule that once applied to which wine to drink with which food is disappearing. In an effort to help panicked hosts out there decide upon the right wine for their meal I will suggest certain wines for certain meals. Steaks and other red meats do tend to go better with heartier red wines such as a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Zinfandel, a Syrah, an Australian Shiraz or a Merlot but if your guest doesn’t like red wines then I would suggest serving a dry and well aged Chardonnay that has been aged in oak. Pork tends to go well with a Beaujolais, a Pinot Noir, a Pinot Gris or a Chardonnay. Turkey tends to go well with a Chardonnay, a Chablis, a Pinot Noir, a Syrah, or a Beaujolais. With chicken it tends to depend on how it is made and with what sauce is on it. When chicken is barbequed, heavily marinated or has a heavier sauce on it I would suggest that it be served with a Zinfandel, a Syrah, or a White Burgundy. Chicken that is grilled, baked or broiled goes well with a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Grigio, a Pinot Noir or even a Burgundy. Fish normally go well with a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Noir or a Beaujolais. The Pinot Noir and the Beaujolais are red wines but will still work with the fish since they are lighter reds. With salmon, which is a heavier and oilier fish, it tends to go well with a Chardonnay, a Riesling, a Pinot Noir or a Beaujolais. Shell fish tend to go well with a Chardonnay, a Chenin Blanc, a Sauvignon Blanc or a Riesling. If you must have a red wine with the shell with I would suggest a Beaujolais. With Pastas it depends on the sauce. When eating Pasta with a red sauce a Cabernet Sauvignon, a Zinfandel, a Syrah, a Chianti, or even a Pinot Blanc go well. When eating a Pasta in a lighter white cream sauce a Chardonnay or a Sauvignon Blanc go well but a Merlot can be drank as well if you prefer a red wine. Lastly, deserts tend to go better with sweeter wines such as a Gewurztraminer, a Port, a Riesling, or a White Zinfandel.
- As you can see most foods can go with either a white or a red wine, depending on how dry or sweet the wine is as well as the complexity of the wine. There is one rule though that I strongly suggest you follow. Many times hosts may have several wines with a meal. If you do that then its normally best to go from lighter to dark. As such, you might start off with a Champagne, which as I said earlier goes well with appetizers or with the opening course in a meal, then go to a lighter white wine if your having a lighter meal such as chicken or fish or red wine with heartier and heavier meal. You can switch back to a sweeter wine for desert but I suggest allowing your guests to cleanse their pallet with some bread or water since a heartier and heavier red wine can change the taste of a sweeter wine and make it taste odd.
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