Choosing a good wine can be a nightmare, especially when 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 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 different 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.
Firstly and most importantly, you need to match the wine to the meal you have chosen. Everyone has different opinions of which wines will taste good with different foods, but there are a few basic rules 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. If you’re eating red meat choose a dark red like Cabernet or Syrah. For lamb or pork dishes 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 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, check where it has come from. Wines from different regions are 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 choice 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 thingit’s a good idea to check is the vintage of the wine, or the year it was bottled. A real wine buff will already 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 a few of 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 don’t distribute these reds for a couple of years after bottling, which gives them time to mature. This means from the minute they appear in stores they are ready to drink and will taste good. Most white and sparkling wines don’t need aging, and taste good if drunk straight away.
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