Check out our handy tips for entertaining with both food and wine. Cabernet Sauvignon & Bordeaux Blend Sauvignon Blanc& Pinot Grigio Cabernet Sauvignon& Bordeaux Blend From room temperature, white wines need about an hour in the refrigerator to achieve this temperature. If the wine is too cold, it will mask the aromas and flavors making it seem simple. If the wine is too warm, it will seem fat (meaning lacking acidity and structure). Serve at 55-58° F Remember that "room temperature" referred to drafty stone castles, not modern insulated homes. Cool room temperature red wines in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes before serving. When red wines are served too warm, they become overly alcoholic and flabby. If reds are served too cold, their aromas and flavors will be muted. Serve at 62-65° F Download Serving Tips PDF Food and Wine Pairing Tips Download Pairing Guide PDFTop 5 Bad Wine Pairings H ave you ever slaved over a hot stove to make a delicious meal, placed it lovingly on the table for your guests, and then opened a prized bottle—only to find out that the food and the wine got along about as well as a snake and a mongoose?

I sure have, memorably during one dinner party that went south as soon as the beefy Cabernet started obliterating the ethereal pork dish. But bad wine matches actually can be useful: They teach us about what does work, and why. Here, five scenarios that highlight the good and the bad of food-and-wine pairing. Note: We picked only stellar bottles (diversely priced from $16 to $85) in our scenarios, and the pairing information should hold true regardless of how much you spend on a bottle. 1. Champagne Sparkling wines are eminently food-friendly. Bubbles wake up the taste buds. And Champagne, specifically, is blended from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and the lesser-known Pinot Meunier, which are all fairly easy to pair on their own, too. Pommery Champagne Brut Royal NV (affordable at $42) is light on its feet, exemplifying the healthy acidity and freshness found in the best bubblies. Worst Pairing: Best Pairing: Chocolate Cake with Buttercream A frequent wine-pairing mistake: cake and bubbly. The Champagne is relatively tart, the cake is super-sweet, and it's like World War III in your mouth.

Spicy Asian Noodle and Chicken Salad Champagne, when light, dry, and acidic, elegantly cuts through the spices in Asian food; cost of wine in indiadishes with nuts bring out the nutty flavors in the Pommery. where to buy wine on sunday in pa2. Cabernet Sauvignon Big Cabs are the giants of the wine world: Be careful, or they will stomp all over your menu. best kind of wine with turkeyWe love them for their berry-filled exuberance, but we fear their chewy tannins. best book on spanish wineBrandlin Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 ($85) has tons of cherry flavor and a powerful thickness in mouthfeel/texture, typical of high-end Cabs that need careful consideration at the dinner table. list of popular german wines

Worst Pairing: Best Pairing: Pan-Seared Petrale Sole with Winter Vegetables Filet of sole, like flounder or any white flaky fish, is delicate, and will not only get lost, it will sour when it hits Brandlin's dense texture. black ink wine priceBest Pairing: Rib-Eye Steaks in Red Wine Sauce Red wine and beef is a classic match, but the addition of soy sauce, which helps soften tannins, makes the match that much better. 3. Pinot Noir Ever since the movie Sideways, Pinot Noir has been riding a wave of popularity as the easy-drinking light red. It's hard to find anyone who doesn't like a fruity, lower-tannin wine with a sight hint of earthiness, but that doesn't mean it can go with everything. The Erath Pinot Noir Oregon 2007 ($19) has a nice floral bouquet and an appealing strawberry flavor. Worst Pairing: Best Pairing: Chicken with Tarragon Vinegar Sauce The herb vinegar in this dish dampens the wine's fruitiness.

Like sprinkling tarragon over roses. Pinots clash with acidic dishes. Chicken Thighs with Squash, Yams, and Apricots Any recipe with mild, even flavors like this one with fruit and sweet veggies will bring out Erath's essential flavors. 4. Sauvignon Blanc New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc wins over fans with its tart brilliance. The Long Boat Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc ($20) is a good example of the bold, grapefruit-'n'-grass style that works with many dishes—but not all of them. It's got a long finish, suggesting more serious winemaking than its modest price would indicate. Worst Pairing: Best Pairing: Brussels Sprout, Blue Cheese, and Pecan Salad Blue cheese is tough with any wine—and the slightly sweet pecans make the wine taste more tart than it really is. You can't have two bold flavors competing. Seared Sea Bass with Fresh Herbs and Lemon This dish has the same citrus and herb profile as the wine, but complementary tastes as well (the seared skin bits contrast nicely with the fruit flavors).

5. Chardonnay Burgundian-style Chardonnay—the classic white grape subtly aged in oak—has taken a public relations hit in recent years. But at its best, as in the Kali Hart Chardonnay Monterey County 2006 ($16), the wood is a fully integrated part of the taste, a frame around the fruit flavors that helps the wine age gracefully. Worst Pairing: Best Pairing: Spicy Lamb and Chorizo Chili The heaviness of this meat and the spice's heat (ancho chilies and cayenne pepper) make the wine seem unbearably oaky. Sautéed Pork Chop with Sage-Cider Cream Sauce Cream sauces are a great way to blunt the edges of a young and oaky white wine, and the cider evokes this wine's pineapple fruitiness. Prices and availability subject to change. Ted Loos, the former features editor of Wine Spectator, has written about wine for Bon Appétit, and is the author of Town & Country Wine Companion: A Tasting Guide and Journal (Hearst Books, $12.95).Being a good sommelier isn't about knowing every wine producer and vintage in the universe.

It's about pairing wine with food -- specifically, with the cuisine of a particular chef in a particular restaurant. After all, when you strip away all the fancy names, technical data and extreme adjectives, wine is really just a beverage that we drink with food. When customers ask me how I know which wines go well with which foods, my answer often disappoints. It's not because I possess some secret text or oenological database. It's because, whenever my chef creates a new dish, I sit in my office and taste it with dozens of wines, so that I can talk intelligently to customers about the virtues of various pairings. Much has been written about wine-and-food matching -- no wine book is published without a whole appendix on the subject -- but books and rules can only take you so far. There's no substitute for tasting. That said, when entertaining at home, most people serve wine and food that they've never even tasted separately, let alone together. They run out to the wine store the day of the party and they choose a white and a red based on the recommendation of some pimply-faced kid who works Saturdays at the liquor store to earn extra spending money.

If you really want to wow your guests, you'll need to do a little homework. And what assignment could be more enjoyable than tasting a lot of wine? Five rules for successful matchmaking When I taste wine candidates for a particular dish, I don't do so at random. First, you need to narrow the field, and the easiest way to do that is by following the golden rule of wine-and-food pairing: white with fish, red with meat. This eminently sensible rule has come under tremendous attack lately, but it's still the best starting point. When you think about it, it's shorthand for the principle that compatible food and wine should be of a similar weight: light wine with light food, heavy wine with heavy food. As with all rules, there are exceptions. Sometimes you find a heavy fish dish, perhaps with a red wine sauce; similarly, some white wines are quite full-bodied. But if you always keep the equal-weight principle in mind, you'll be off to a good start. Second, keep in mind that what you're looking for in a good match is synergy.

You don't just want wine and food to tolerate each other. The wine and food together should be greater than the sum of their parts: Each should enhance the other while preserving its fundamental character and integrity. The only way you can figure this out is through a simple but rarely utilized procedure: Taste the wine, taste the food and only then taste the wine and food together. Third, as you progress through a lifetime of eating and drinking, there's no substitute for good record keeping. You can dramatically deepen your experience of wine by maintaining a notebook and recording the wines you've enjoyed, with particular emphasis on the wine-and-food combinations that have worked best. Fourth, draw inspiration from the time-tested classics. There are a few combinations that almost everybody thinks are superb: Sauternes with Roquefort, Chablis with oysters, Bordeaux with roasted lamb, champagne with scallops. Use these as a starting point, and build from there. Finally, if you're not willing to do all this work, I suggest you cheat by getting your guests to do your job.