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Wine & food matching guide

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It was on a holiday in sunny Napier that I first really learnt to appreciate how the flavours of food can experience a heavenly partnership with wine. It was a candle-lit dinner complete with five star service and nobody could stop me from trying the recommended wine with each course... The result was tantalised taste-buds and a new goal to find out more about wine and food matching. For some reason, wine and food matching is often thought to be confusing or a bit snobby. But that's really not the case at all - the guidelines to matching are fairly simple and the results can really bring that wow factor to a meal.

Tips for basic food and wine matching...

Each dish that you will eat will generally have a dominating flavour and the wine should match - or contrast this.

Acidic flavoured foods may be flavoured with citrus or vinegar and these foods should be matched with an equally acidic wine.

A popular rule is to match light foods with light wine, for example a chicken salad with a sauvignon blanc... Likewise a hearty, full-bodied wine is a great match for a rich dish.

If you will be drinking a variety of wines throughout the meal, the following order of wine has also been used to enhance the enjoyment of wine: serve dry wines before sweet wines, white wines before red wines, and young wines before older wines.

Pair the wine with the dominant flavour in the sauce or seasoning. There again, sometimes it is great to work with the opposites attract theory - a hot and spicy Thai curry can often taste spectacular paired with a sweet dessert wine.

A long tradition of drinking wine with cheese can't be wrong, but different cheeses compliment different wines... A guide is to match; red wines with mild to sharp cheese, sweet wines with pungent and intensely flavoured cheese, dry white wine with goats cheeses, and milder cheeses pair best with fruitier red wine. Camembert and Brie are delicious with just about any red wine.