Red vs. White Wine: How to Choose What's Right

You are sitting at lunch with your friends or a client and the waiter hands you the wine list. What will you order? What should you order if it's the middle of the day and you don't want to overindulge?

Because lunch is often a light meal, many people consider white wine to be the best choice. However, the rule of thumb is that the wine should compliment the food you are eating, and the food should compliment the wine. A healthy balance is the best choice, but finding that balance can take years of practice.

As a general rule, make your mid-day wine indulgences a lighter variety, such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir or a Pinot Blanc.

When deciding on a wine, however, try not to be a wine snob. Remember that you should never think that red goes only with red meat and white only with fish and poultry. With the variety of wines available today, the possibilities for red and white wine pairings are virtually endless.

Red Pairings for Dinner
Dinner is the time when heavier reds can be enjoyed with anything from pasta to beef to lamb. A good idea is to pair pasta with Shiraz, heavier red meats with Cabernet, roast with Pinot Noir and pork with Merlot.

You can definitely pair pizza with your favorite Shiraz or Cabernet. You will be surprised at how well the flavors compliment each other.

White Wine Pairings
When you and your friends get together for wine tasting, the best wines to try are those that are lighter on the palate. For example, Pinot Grigio or chilled Chardonnay will likely be wines that are pleasing to most of your guests.

What if you're just having dessert? Ice wines (made from frozen grapes) or Ports make for a refreshing dessert drink.

The most important thing to remember when pairing wine with food is that you are trying to find complimentary flavors. Occasionally, flavors are enhanced through slight contrast. As a result, pairing an apple pie with an apple wine is not the best match to enhance the flavors of the food and drink.

Red vs. White Wine Pairing Basics
While you can pair wine with food based on your personal preferences, you can also follow some basic wine pairing rules. For example, Cheddar and Brie pair well with Pinot Noir or Shiraz, and Gouda matches up nicely with Bordeaux or an ice wine.

Rules of thumb are that red wine goes with hard cheese, white wine with the softer varieties. Generally speaking, ice wine goes well with pastries and other desserts.

White Wine Pairings

• Chardonnay: This wine is usually dry and full-bodied. Good for fish or chicken, a Chardonnay will often be full, with either a strong buttery taste or a fruity flavor. Chardonnay also goes well with buttery dishes and pasta.
• Sauvignon Blanc: This wine features a citric taste that goes well with spicy foods. When pairing Sauvignon Blanc, think Asian food or a meal with lots of flavors. Sauvignon Blanc is typically medium- to light-bodied and quite dry.
• Riesling: This wine goes with just about everything. Although some Rieslings are sweet, don't let that deter you. A dry Riesling will go with everything from pork to chicken.

Red Pairings

• Cabernet Sauvignon: If you like black fruit then you will love Cabernet Sauvignon. Try it with beef or lamb, and remember that it is medium- to full-bodied and also very dry.
• Merlot: Merlot is soft, making a nice pair with just about anything you eat for dinner. However, it is also quite dry. The best Merlots are medium- to full-bodied and pair well with pizza.
• Pinot Noir: Pinot Noir is a light wine that is medium- to full-bodied. Lighter than most red wines, it is somewhat fruity and goes well with beef, chicken, salmon and some cheeses.
• Syrah/Shiraz: Full of flavor and often spicy, Syrah goes well with casseroles or heavier meats.

Enjoy Your Wine
If you have trouble choosing between red vs. white wines, why not try a sparkling wine? Sparkling wines serve as a good pairing for starters, cold dishes or salads. If you still find yourself stressing about your wine decision, just remember that the most important thing is enjoy the wine you drink.

Pairing Wine and Food

Wine and food pairing tips are meant to be suggestions rather than rigid guidelines, but don't ignore them altogether. At the very least, they're a starting point for the uninitiated and even the more advanced wine drinkers.

Choosing a wine to dine with has never been as exciting as it is today. There are no state boundaries, and no oceans that great wines cannot cross. You can dine out in New York on spicy Indian food accompanied by a bold Australian wine.

The possibilities are endless. The biblical maxim still rings true: eat, drink and be merry.

Guidelines for Choosing Wine with a Meal
Balance is a key word when it comes to choosing which wine to drink. The wine shouldn't overpower your food and food flavors shouldn't drown out your wine.

Think of wine as a spice rather than an alcoholic grape-based drink. Everyone knows that too much salt spoils the soup, but just enough salt enhances the entire dish. Look at wine through the same lens and you can't go wrong.

The Myth of Traditional Taboos
Flavor, texture, body and taste are more important than the traditional notion of red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat and fish. This might have been more accurate in the past before the wide variety of wines came onto the market. You're more likely to enjoy a light wine with light food and drink, regardless of the color. Similarly, a heavy robust wine usually enhances a heavy meal.

Tips on Wine Gift-Giving
Many people feel that wine is the ideal gift for any party. What host or hostess doesn't need another bottle of wine to delight his or her guests?

Don't give a second thought to the food being served (except in cases where you were specifically asked to do so). Any good wine will be appreciated.

Do go to the trouble of pairing the food quality with the wine. For more formal dining (a five course extravaganza) choose a higher quality wine than you would buy for an old-fashioned burgers-on-the-barbecue get-together.

Eating-Out Wine Tips
After you've decided what you're going to eat, think about how the food is prepared before you order the wine. Is it poached or steamed? If so, scan the list for a more delicate wine. Is it braised, grilled, roasted or sautéed? Don't be shy to question the staff.

Inquire about the ingredients in the sauce and other flavorings. The more information you have about the food, the more likely you are to choose the best wine for your meal.

Flavors, Food and Wine
As a rule of thumb you should match your flavors with your food whether you're eating in or dining out. A hearty vegetable soup should be complemented by an earthy wine. Foods in a lemon sauce would go well with a citrus flavored wine.

Sweet foods might be an exception to the above guideline. Avoid a wine that's sweeter than the food.

Sweet wines can go surprisingly well with spicy foods. If you intend to order a different wine with each course, choose the wine with the lowest alcohol content first.

Wine Anecdotes
When you're nervous about starting a conversation over lunch with a new client or after an awkward introduction at a social gathering, you can always bring out a smile with some comical anecdotes or interesting facts about wine.

As you're offering to top up the glasses, why not mention the wedding of Scotland's Alexander the Third? On this singular occasion 25,500 gallons of wine were consumed. That's the modern equivalent of 135,000 bottles! Well, they needed something to wash down the 1,300 deer, 7,000 hens, 170 boars, 60,000 herrings and 68,500 loaves of bread!

Or you might mention that Americans drink more wine on Thanksgiving Day than on any other day of the year?

Wine aficionados might be interested in this anecdote: In a test conducted by the Department of Viticulture and Enology at the University of California at Davis, wine was served at room temperature in black glasses to remove temperature and color cues. Even experts from the wine industry were often unable to tell red wine from white.