How To Choose The Perfect Wine

The right wine can compliment your dinner perfectly; but if you choose the wrong wine it could be a disaster. So how do you choose the right wine to compliment what you have ordered to eat in a restaurant? Never mind the restaurant, what about when you’re at home; you make a nice dinner and want the perfect wine to compliment what you’ve cooked. Picture yourself standing in the liquor store surrounded by hundreds of bottles, whites and reds, naturally sparkling, rose, and Rieslings. Should it be dry or semi-dry; should it by fruity or smoky. The world of wine has really developed into an industry of taste and culture.

The right choice is a little easier in a restaurant. You wait staff should be able to recommend a wine that will compliment what you’ve chosen for dinner. If your wait staff is not savvy in the art of choosing, then the bartender should have more confidence, and have the basic skills of choosing wines. The upscale restaurants will make recommendations without you asking about which wine to choose; and sometimes a recommended wine is printed on the menu with the dish you have chosen. If you do find yourself alone you can choose something that you are familiar with or use the old standard of ordering. White wines are ordered with white meats and white sauces, red wines for red meats and red sauces. The most popular is Chardonnay for whites and Cabernet Sauvignon for a red.

When ordering a wine in a restaurant it is usually more economical to purchase wine by the bottle rather than by the glass. It is usually easy to find a restaurant that offers dinner specials, perhaps dinner for two with a bottle of wine for a fixed price. If you are home and want to have wine with your dinner or need wine as an ingredient; you will probably have better luck getting advice if you go to a store that has a vast array of choices. Just remember the rule of thumb when cooking with wine. You don’t cook with the expensive wines; a cheap bottle of wine is fine to cook with as long as it has the flavor you are looking for. If you want a smoky flavor or a fruity flavor, use the cheap wine, the alcohol burns off and just leaves the flavor; use the good wine to drink with your dinner.

Of Course, when examining the prices of wines, you could be shocked as some of the prices. If money is not an issue, you’re in luck, but if you budget your money, like most people, you can get decent wines as reasonable prices. Just a few tips about keeping your wines fresh; keep the bottle on its side and rotate it, the cork should never dry out, keep them in a dry space out of direct sunlight and enjoy them before their third birthday.

It isn’t necessary to age wine over long periods of time any longer, so there’s no need to get the back hoe into the basement to renovate for that perfect wine cellar. Most stores can recommend wineries to visit, so you can do a little taste testing. If there are no vineyards near you, the stores that specialize in wines will often host wine tasting events. You should go to them, get a taste for what you like, then making choices later on in restaurants and at home will be much easier and less stressful.