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How to find the perfect wine for your dinner date?

Matching the right wine to food can be tricky unless you are a connoisseur. The next time you go out to drink, do not merely ask for the restaurant’s “best bottle of wine.” In most of these cases, the servers bring back the costliest bottle that might or might not pair well with the dishes you have ordered. To avoid such faux pas, you need to take matters into your own hands.

It is time to learn the basics of pairing food with the right wine.

If you still categorize wine according to their colors – red, white and rosé only, you are making a big mistake. There are several subcategories depending upon the level of dryness, acidity, body, and subtle hints of other flavors. All wine novices will benefit from following these simple rules. Once you begin to understand the flavors of each wine, their effects on different foods and their characters, you will find it quite easy to break the rules and experiment. Here are the nine rules you must remember when you go to a wine-and-dine the next time –

1. The wine you pick should be more acidic than the food you have ordered. You can go with a Sauvignon Blanc, Vinho Verde, or Verdejo with your eyes closed when ordering scallops and prawns with tart dressings or sauce.
2. Your wine should be sweeter than the food. Shiraz, Malbec, and Côtes-du-Rhône are excellent choices for dishes based on barbeque sauce.
3. The food and wine should share the same flavor intensity. If you want the one wine to go with your 5-course dinner, go with Rosé Sparkling wines.
4. Whites pair with light-intensity, low-fat and lean meat like a light preparation of chicken or fish. Arneis and Pinot Grigio are the top choices of Sokolin Wines for light fish dishes.
5. The high tanning in Red wines brings the flavor of juicy steaks together. Bordeaux and California Cabernet go perfectly well with chops and steaks.
6. When you are thinking about ordering a fatty chop or steak, you should think about going with a bolder and bitter wine. Most bitter reds like the Cabernet Sauvignon balance well with fat.
7. Always think about the play of flavors between the wine and the sauce. Pair the wine with the sauce and never the meat.
8. When certain similar compounds in the wine and food come together to increase the intensity of certain flavors, experts refer to it as a congruent pairing. Most red wines contribute to congruent pairings.
9. When the compounds balance each other by creating contrasting flavors and tastes, experts refer to it as contrasting pairings. Most whites, Rosé and Sparkling, create unique contrasting pairings with food.

If you feel lost on your first fancy date, remember that most red wines have high tanning content that gives them a basic bitter taste. Red wines have the least sweetness among all wines. White wines and rosés are acidic with a tinge of sweetness and a touch of bitterness. No wines contain the three tastes of spiciness, saltiness, and fatness. That is all you need to enjoy a simple dinner with your significant other, without giving away your amateur status.