Is food and wine pairing a real dilemma for you? Perhaps you too have gone to your local wine dealer and, when faced with such a variety of wines, wondered where oh where do I begin? Do I serve white wine with chicken or with fish? When do I serve the red wine? With steak? or is it ribs? What about pork? What should I serve with pork? And lamb? where does that fit in?. . . and your mind goes round and round. “OoooooH!!!!!” you wonder. “Why is food and wine pairing so complicated?”

Well, not to worry. You have just joined the ranks of those who also did not have the background to select the perfect wine and who found out it is really not that difficult of a problem. Let’s begin with the basics of matching food with its complementary wine. Read the rest of this entry »

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So you’ve decided you would give a dinner party and serve wine; however, since you are a beginner and not a connoisseur of wine, you’re wondering what types of wine you should serve with your meal. To help you make a more educated choice, let’s look at the different types of wine.

The Five Most Popular Types of Wine

Throughout the years wine has always been popular, so it’s no surprise that over the years, different types of wines have been developed in different parts of the world.

Some of today’s most popular types of wines are the red wine, the white wine, the sparkling wine, the table wine, and the cooking wine. Each type of wine has subtypes; however, there are so many subtypes that mentioning them all will just confuse the beginners. So, let’s begin with a brief overview of the first four of these five most popular types of wine.

Red Wine Vs White Wine

Both the red wine and the white wine rank at the top of the list of the most favored types of wine. Many people all over the world love to drink these types of wine during and after dinner. In most European countries, having their dinner without their red wine or white wine is just not even considered; without their glass of wine, their dinner would just not be complete.

What Determines The Color Of The Wine?

The presence or the absence of the skin of the grapes determines the color of the wine. White wine is produced by removing the skin of the grapes before extracting the juice.

On the other hand, red wine is produced by letting the red skin of the grapes get into contact with the juice during the fermentation process.

Since the heavy flavor of grapes is concentrated on its skin, red wine usually taste a bit stronger compared to white wine. White wine usually has a light taste; thus, it goes well with subtly flavored dishes and light meals while red wine is best suited for strong flavored meals.

The Sparkling Wine

Another popular type of wine,the sparkling wine, has a high level of carbon dioxide which is manifested in its fizzy nature. Some wines have only small amounts of carbon while others, especially those that have been injected with carbon dioxide during the fermentation process, have high carbon content and fizzle really well. Many people refer to the sparkling wine as the champagne style wine. Since this wine fizzles almost like champagne, many people opt to use this type of wine instead of champagne during celebrations.

The Table Wine

Another type of wine which has become extremely popular over the years is the table wine. This type of wine has higher alcohol content compared to other types of wine. In the United States, the alcohol content of table wine is just within the 8.5% and the 14% alcohol content, but in Europe, table wine usually has an alcohol content of more than 14%.

So whether you choose to serve red wine, white wine, sparkling wine, or table wine really now depends on what type of food you are planning to serve and more than anything, what your preference might be. To further help you, we will next discuss how to pair wine and food.

So until then, enjoy your wine.

Cheers!

Marcie