Pairing the perfect wine with a variety of foods is a really complex task and can some times leave the most avid wine enthusiast with a million questions.
1. Never change your mind:
The first helpfull tip to keep your guests impressed is to never change your mind once you have made a choice. Don't ever wish you chose a different wine. Rather look for key elements in the wine that compliment each food and vica versa. This way you look confident and knowledgeable through the various elements you can identify.
2.Remeber that a pallate is a delicate thing:
To keep your palate from getting confused between all the different wines being tasted during the evening, start from the lightest and end off with the strongest. (Seems like a no brainer right?
Start with a white wine to wake up the palate gently. Then move on to the lighter reds, following in to the stronger major reds and finally finish off the meal with a crisp sweet wine, especially if dessert if being served.
3. Never forget that wine should enhance your meal, a touch to highlight the magic of the cook:
Remeber that wine is a pleasure and like most pleasures, we all enjoy them differently. If a guest is not really a red wine drinker then perhaps they will enjoy a slightly bolder white wine with their main meal. Wine pairing is very complex and adding the complexity of each guests palate makes it even more of a challenge to always get right, so be versitile and play around with various pairings. Don't be scared to experiment.
We hope that these tips will help keep your guests impressed at your next food and wine evening and remember to most of all, enjoy it, because wine is a very complex yet very enjoyable pleasure.