How to choose a wine…
If you are pretty confused in front of supermarket shelves full of bottles of wine of each shape, colour, origin and price. Sunned in front of that abundance for some minutes, and finally you choose the bottle with the nicest and coloured label.
It happens to me every time!
If you are guests of friends of yours or you want to make a good impression bringing a good bottle of wine. It is important to make the right choice to avoid bad impression.
Here you can find some easy and practical suggestion about how to choose a wine, to guide you in the right way in the wide world of wine.
Suggestion number one to choose wine
Forget the rule that wants white wine with fish and red wine with meat, the perfect pairing or, if you want, a good rule to keep in mind is: “after each sip of wine, the mouth has to be clean so you can taste the following bite as it is the first”; food and wine has to be complementary.
Said this, the main things to evaluate of the wine and food are their structure and their persistence, which means the lasting of the aromas in the mouth, that have to be at least similar.
Thus, if we know that we taste a dish with pretty intense and lasting flavours, you have to choose a wine with the same characteristics. A slice of chicken next to an Amarone della Valpolicella will loose its properties in the labyrinth of a strong wine.
As for the dessert, the main rule says that “the dessert has to be paired with sweet wines”, following naturally the same structure and the persistence of the dish and the wine.
Follow your taste and your instinct…
Without talking about technical terms, as for instance about the concordances and the contrasts, it is important for you to follow your tastes and why not the curiosity to choose a wine just because you don’t know it. This choice can give you the experience that will be necessary for the following pairings.
Then, if you don’t know what you are going to eat, well… bubbles can solve your problem!
Fresh and fizzy, Spumante wines with their bubbles that run in the glasses, not only can pair the whole lunch, but they make it joyful, cheering up the tablemate and living up your evenings.
Sommelier Matteo Bernardi
