Choosing a good wine can be a nightmare, especially if you’ve got someone to impress. 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 too much to think about, and it always seems like everyone else knows so much more about it than you do. You stand there for ages looking at the 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 for what to watch out for and how to choose the perfect wine to compliment your meal.

Firstly and most importantly, you should match the wine to the meal you will be eating. Everyone’s opinion is different when it comes to which wine 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 just to match the colour of the wine to the meat. So if you’re eating red meat select 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 having a rich flavour. Chicken and fish dishes can often be overpowered by reds so it’s best to go for a white instead, perhaps 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 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 wines for hundreds of years. Italy is another good choice, and Chilean wines are also very popular at the moment, particularly reds.

Another thing it’s worth checking is the vintage of the wines you’re choosing from, or the year they were bottled. A real wine buff will already know which were the good years for each region, and will only buy vintages 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 at least be on the right track. 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 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.

Tags: champagne flutes, choosing wine, wine, wine glasses