5 tips for serving WINE right

泰山顶上一棵葱

5 tips for serving it right
By Liza Finlay
First published in Chatelaine.com's September 2002 issue.
© Liza Finlay



Your new neighbours are coming over for dinner and drinks--and they'll want wine. Know nothing about the stuff, except that downing that bottle of Baby Duck on the way to your grad wasn't such a good idea? Follow these tips to make the evening a success.

1. Perhaps the most misleading area in wine world is that you must serve white wine with poultry and seafood, and red with meat and game. A better rule of thumb is to match the wine to the sauce in the dish being served. A chicken dressed with a heavy Merlot sauce or a sea bass coated with chestnut might be better accompanied by a red. Similarly, veal served with a light citrus sauce would be delicious with a crisp white or red. Still confused? If the sauce or dressing is robust, go with a red. If it's more delicate, try a white.

2. The multitudinous varietals of wines can instill panic in neophytes. Roughly, reds can be divided into three broad categories: light-bodied, medium-bodied and full-bodied. Gamay is often made into a light red, Pinot Noirs are a good example of a medium red, while Shiraz wines are favourite full-bodied reds. It's a good idea to serve the lighter wines at the start of a meal, saving the more voluptuous reds for the end, as their effect on the palette can be powerful.

3. So what about the Baby Duck? Well, that's probably not the best choice, but "off-dries" do have a place in the most discerning wine cellars. Off-dries, which have a sugar content of 0 to 2, are wonderful served with Indian, Asian and spicy foods. Many of the best Rieslings, for example, are wonderful companions to cheese, shrimp, oysters or other hors d'oeuvres.

4. There are a number of New World wines, made in emerging wine regions, which represent great taste at great value. Australia, New Zealand, Chile and South Africa have produced exemplary wines in the last half-decade. Australia is noted for its Shiraz wines, which are full-bodied. New Zealand has garnered a reputation for beautiful Sauvignon Blancs, a typical passion fruit or grassy, white wine.

5. Canada is renowned for its ice wines, so called because they are picked when the grape is frozen on the vine and the water within the grape has crystallized. Always a very sweet wine, ice wines are wonderful on their own or with dessert.