Your Favorite Cake Recipes.

Choosing a good wine can be a nightmare, especially if you’re trying to impress someone. You’re having a dinner party – you’ve planned the menu thoroughly, dusted off your best tableware and crystal glass, and got everything prepared – except for the wine selection. There’s just so much to think about, and everyone else always seems to know 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 of what to look for and how to choose the perfect wine that will compliment your meal.

Firstly and most importantly, you need to match the wine to the meal you are going to eat. Everyone has different opinions of which wine will taste good with different foods, but there are a few basic guidelines that you can follow if you’re not sure. The easiest way is just to match the colour of the wine to the meat. So if you’re eating red meat go for 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, like 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 know what kind of wine you are looking for, look at where it was made. Wines from different regions are hugely different in quality, so it’s best to do a bit of research into the best regions. If you’re not sure, France is always a safe bet and has been producing good quality wines for hundreds of years. Italy is another good choice, and Chilean wines are very popular at the moment too, particularly the reds.

Another thing worth checking is the vintage of the wines you are choosing from, or the year they were bottled. A true 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 as they get older is a common misconception. It’s true that most red wines do improve with a little aging, but most wineries won’t distribute these reds for a couple of years after bottling to give them time to mature. This means by the time they appear on the shelves they are ready to drink and will taste good. Most white or sparkling wines don’t need aging, and are good to drink right away.