Choosing and Serving Wines
Choosing a Wine for Dinner
I get questions asking what wine goes with what dinner - and the answer, truly, is that any
wine you enjoy can go with any dinner. Try to keep the sweeter wines for dessert or sipping, and drier or
less sweet wines for dinner. White wines compliment white meat and fish best, while red wines compliment
red meat and heavy flavored meals (like tomato sauce on pasta). It is not a sin to mix it up, however,
so don't stress out over it.
If going to someone's home for dinner, take a bottle of wine of whatever type
you enjoy - the host can choose to use it or save it to enjoy on another evening - he is not obligated to
serve a wine you bring, so if it doesn't match the meal, it's ok.
If a wine doesn't taste quite right for a meal, just recork it and save it for the next night, or for
after-meal sipping.
Fine wines go very well with cheese - visit
Cheese & Wine Unlimited
for great wine and cheese baskets,
and gift ideas.
Refer This Site
Do you know how to do a wine tasting? First, take the cork (yes - cork - any screw-top wines are not worth
"tasting") and sniff it - get the aroma. It may smell fruity or oakey. Then pour into a wide mouth glass, swirl it a
bit and sniff again - let it absorb. Take a bit of wine, mixing it with air, pulling in air into your mouth
to mix in. You can feel the flavor explode when you mix the air in. Swirl it
around your mouth for a moment and savor the flavor. Swallow and feel the hopefully nice feeling as it goes
down your throat. Wine tasting is like an art form - it is perfected with practice. You find words to describe the
wine - oakey, dry, fruity, sweet, smooth, bitter, and more. You need to try various wines to come up with the
varied terms. Above all - enjoy your wine!
For great books about wines, visit the "Cooking,
Food & Wine" area at Barnes & Noble.
Have Wine Questions? Want to Learn More?
If you are needing to figure out to serve, or what one type is like, or
about a particular vineyard, send us your questions. We'll tackle them or
put them out for others with experience. If you want to participate and
read the interaction or if you have a question, Email your
question, and subscribe
to find your answers.
Our collection of wine books.
Special Buys on Wines
Would you to compliment your wine experience with Fine Art?
Aging Wines and Champagnes
You probably are used to hearing people say they age wine to let it mature and become more flavorful - but
there is a limit to how long you should do this.
White wines,
Champagnes (or sparkling wines), and
pink wines
do
not need time to age in most cases - it won't take very
long for most to go bad - the champagnes and sparkling wines to lose their fizz, the white wines to start tasting
odd, if not bad. Often you can see some debris on the bottom of the bottle when it's upright - the sugars and perhaps the
cork are settling out. Try to buy them closer to the time you plan to drink them.
Red
wines
are
generally better as they age, unless it's a really cheap wine. Just make sure you store the wine bottle, unopened, on its side in a
temperature-controlled environment. The basement is a good place, as the temperature is cooler and fairly constant. Keeping the wine on its
side helps keep the bottle airtight - not letting the cork dry out. Once air hits the wine, it will start to turn into vinegar, and there
goes your investment. Proper storage can ensure wonderful wines far out into the future.
Sunset Wine Club - Let Sunset magazine editors be your guide to a unique food and wine experience.
