How to select wine
Choosing a good wine can be a real 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 crockery and wine glasses, and got everything prepared – except for the wine selection. There’s just so much to consider, and everyone else always seems to know so much more about it than you do. You stand there for what seems like forever 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 should 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 guidelines that you can follow if you’re not sure. The easiest way is to match the colour of the wine to the meat, you can’t go wrong. So 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 supplying a rich flavour. Chicken and fish dishes are often 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’ve worked out what kind of wine you want, look at where it has come from. Wines from different regions will be hugely different in quality, so it pays to do a bit of research into which are the best regions. If you’re not sure, France is always a safe bet and has been producing good quality fine wines for hundreds of years. Italy is another good choice, and Chilean wines are also very popular at the moment, particularly the reds.
Another thing you should check is the vintage of the wine, or the year it was 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 non-experts, 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 do improve with a little aging, but most wineries won’t distribute these reds for a couple of years after bottling, which gives them time to mature. This means they are ready to drink and will taste good as soon as they appear in stores. Most white or sparkling wines don’t need aging, and taste good if drunk straight away.
