What Wine With Which Food - What Are The Rules?

The real rule is - there are no rules. What you need to do is start tasting. It was once thought, a rule of thumb, that red wine went with heavier foods (meats, spaghetti sauces, etc) and white wine went with lighter fare- fish, eggs and light sauces.

Times have changed. Now, the experts would recommend that you try what works for your tastebuds. If you have a Sauvignon Blanc and your serving meatloaf for dinner, who is to say it wouldn't marry well? You won't know until you have tried it!

I do find that most spicy food, such as Kung Pao or Southwester, actually marry better with a good ice cold beer rather then wine. Having said, and being a raving wine nut, I prefer a chilled Reisling with spicy food over my usual Cabarenet. But this is not a hard and fast rule. It is a preference. Many of my food buddies would hotly disagree.

One food that I have always personally had a hard time wedding up wine to is asparagus. I'm not sure why; wine just never seems to taste right with it. Perhaps you will find the best arrangement!

If you are willing to do some experimenting, considering inviting some friends over and ask each to bring a bottle of wine. Cook up some different tastes and start testing. See which tastes best on your tongue, which wine really makes "sense".  

The long of it is to have fun with it and determine what best suits your pallet. After all, your the one who is going to be drinking the wine!

Traditionally, it was red wine with red meat, white wine with white (and fish) ... and with puddings, sweet wines.

As well as matching tastes and textures, there's also the matter of what order in which to serve your wine.

Again, traditionally, white wine comes before red.  Old wine comes after young wine.  And sweet wine after dry wine.

Things change over the years, especially with the advent of lightly and not-so-lightly spiced foods from overseas, but as a rule, rich and heavy wines go with rich and heavy foods ... and the lighter the food, the lighter the wine.

But what about spicy foods? Chilli and large amounts of  tannin in red wines don't go together too well.

For Indian and Mexican foods, then, go for a rich soft red.  For Thai dishes, try a Sauvignon Blanc. And likewise for a Japanese meal - as long as it's not too heavy on the wasabi. For Chinese, how about a Pinot Blanc or Gris ... or a Riesling?

In short, the rules are changing all the time - and, like most rules, they're made to be broken!

Apparently according to some people (traditional) - When you eat red meat, you have red wine.......when you have white meat, you have white wine...brings out the flavour of the food and some go as far as to say it helps with digestion ( do not know how true the digestion part is though )

As a basic rule, white wine is a daytime drink, while dark wine, including red wine, is an evening drink. These are the uses of wines at their best:
1. Rum - for baking;
2. Red wine - for meat marination. It is not good when chilled for it causes that bitter taste;
3. White wine for chicken and fish. It's good on the rocks
I hope I've helped you with this.

If you want to make Haroset or something with apples, use red wine. It has more flavour.