Wine has been made for millennia from the early days in Georgia every Supra feast deserving a toast by the Tamada (toastmaster) to the guests and host alike.
Modern day styles of wine and the global nature of commerce has seen every far flung style of wine available to people who would have never had some wines in their diet before.
From Tokaji being drunk in South America, Assyrtico in Australia, Shiraz in California heaven forbid Zinfandel in France and all of Asia now getting on board where once the drink was as foreign as hot dogs.
So what are the rules if any on matching food and wine. And what comes first?
Well the answer of course is up to you. If you want to drink that full bodied shiraz or light Pinot Noir with your favourite dish go ahead.
But for many of the traditional wine making countries they have always had wine with their food or food with their wine.
So a great guide to the styles and matching in these countries tends to be more straight forward as the local cuisine and local traditional wines tend to go well together. Think Florentine food and Chianti, Bordeaux and slow cooked lamb.
What about the new world what goes with what?
I have found that with a little elbow room and flexibility it is surprising how some wines will match with some cuisine.
But as a guide here are my top 5 tips for food and wine matching:
1/ Match the weight of the food with the weight of the wine
A big bold red will dominate the lighter cuisine of something like Vietnamese where nothing other than the wine will be tasted.
Seafood and big reds don't work but don't rule out some lighter reds that have a freshness and lack any firm tannin grip.
2/ Sweetness of the food should not be sweeter than the wine.
A dry tannic red with a sweet dish will make the wine taste bitter and hard and the dish overly rich.
3/ At some point chilli and hot foods will not match with wine.
The heat of the dish can cope with off dry white wines when the spicy hot elements are not excessive. And mild spiced dishes might work with a soft round red. But at some point that blow your head off curry is not even suitable for the right beer but becomes the sole domain of milk or yoghurt.
4/ Acidity is a great palate refresher getting you ready for the next bight.
Higher acid wines go well with dishes that have higher acidity than the wine. Think Sangiovese and tomato based Italian dishes.
The acidity is also great to cut through fatty dishes like battered fish with a fresh dry Riesling.
5/ Tannic reds need some protein in the food to moderate the drying sensations. Where the protein coats the tongue and binds with the tannins to create a smoother tasting sensation. This could mean a big meaty steak dish or that black bean burger or mushroom pizza.
Conversely lighter dishes go better with red and white wines that have little or no tannins to obstruct the flavours.
Just have fun the whole red meat red wine white meat white wine is not entirely true as many reds can now have lower levels of tannin and higher acidity and some white wines can have an element of tannin (albeit rarely) and lower acidity.
I always choose the wine first when wine and food matching. But of course I would .