Basically, I’m an idot about wine; however, I want to learn.
What’s good to serve with red wine?
What’s good to serve with white wine?
Are sweet wines good?
If you have anything else to say about wine in general, feel free to chip in too.
I think if you start a vinyard, you should make a lot called “Merlot by Marlow”
Red Wine is good for red meats like beef and game
Whites are good for fish and pork (and chicken, I believe)
Sweet wines depend on your taste.
May want to take a gander at Wine for Dummies, I found it to be a pretty good book for Just The Basics.
That’s actually a complicated question, but in general has a simple answer.
What’s good to serve with red wine? Tradition says beef and other red meats and most waterfowl.
What’s good to serve with white wine? Tradition says fish and fowl.
In general, that rule works, to a certain extent.
Many wine charts and many wine snobs will narrow it down between types of wines and types of dish. For instance, Cabernet is usually paired with beef, Bordeaux with venison, Sauvignon with chicken, etc. But for the major wine snobs it also gets far more complicated than that. It depends on how the dish is prepared. A steak with a smoky peppercorn sauce will pair with a wine differently than a steak with a bourbon/brown sugar sauce. There is a small element of truth to that, but wine snobs like to try and narrow it down to vineyard and vintage. Unless you are James Bond, it’s basically BS.
I make wine, my wife makes wine, my wife used to work as a professional wine consultant, and we know a couple of sommeliers, so we drink a lot of wine. We also cook a lot, and are always experimenting.
Some other “rules” are to pair rich food with rich wine, acidic wine with acidic food, etc. That also is BS. It will help in what you want to put the spotlight on, the meal or the wine but you can reverse the “rule” here to suit your needs.
There is only one real answer to the question, which is something that wine snobs shit a cow over and that is simply, if you like the wine and your meal, it will work. Some wines may work better than others with certain dishes, but unless you can’t stick a greased BB up your butt, it really won’t matter.
This week alone I’ve had the same Aussie Shiraz with beef, a simple roasted chicken, and serious “set your hair on fire” buffalo wings and it was wonderful. I also compared each dish with a homemade strawberry-peach mead and it worked just as well.
There is only one rule with wine (that is if you aren’t an anal retentive, wannabe connoisseir). If you like it, it is a good wine. The only exception to this rule is White Zinfandel, which is only fit for using in cooking certain dishes. I’ll drink MD 20/20 before I’ll drink a glass of WZ.
Sweet wines, same thing. If you like it, it is good. Personally, I love a good Liebfraumilch or a Lambrusco. Liebfaumilch is wonderful with fish btw, especially trout, if you happen to enjoy sweet wines. If you don’t like sweet stuff, then sweet wines will not taste good, regardless of what you serve them with.
Wine is as simple or as complicated (read trendy) as you make it. From personal experience with wine snobs, I’ve tested and seen that a $100 bottle of wine re-bottled in a cheap label usually sucks. A $10 bottle re-bottled in a $100 label bottle gets rave reviews. Wine snobs worry more about the label than they do about taste.
If it tastes good, that is all that matters.
Which is why it is so important to attend some “blind” wine tastings. I knew several people who were wine freaks and we would have periodic blind tastings.
One person opens all of the wines. Another bags the wines and repositions them in another order. A third person numbers the bags. Everyone receives score sheets designed for the specific wine. For whites, you have notes and scales for lemon, grass, butterscotch etc. For reds, you have notes and scales for chocolate, berries, spice etc. You taste each of the wines as a group and score them in succession. Mind you, people in my group had lived in France and others had made their own wine.
We were doing Chardonnay one night. I brought a bottle of M. Marion Chardonnay that was blended in the old Los Gatos Novitiate cellars. I had never tried it but liked the label and location. It competed against $15.[sup]00[/sup] Firestones, Kenwoods and Mondavis.
First prize? My wine. My wine’s cost?
$3.[sup]25[/sup]
Never be fooled by price. Always experiment and be willing to try a large variety of wines before making up your mind as to one particular brand or vintage.
I strongly recommend that when you find a red wine you like, go back and buy a few more bottles. Lay them down in your basement or the coolest place in your house for a few extra years. You may be absolutely stunned by the increase in quality. Several years ago I finally opened a bottle of Silver Oak Cabernet I had kept fairly well for 20 extra years. It was like nectar of the Gods. Full of flavor with nearly zero bite and perfect fruit notes. Patience can pay off handsomely.
Happy sampling!
Since you’re looking for advice, I’ll move this thread to IMHO.
bibliophage
moderator GQ
Drink a LOT of wine. Really. To many people just starting out on the wine craze, wine tastes like, well, wine. Start drinking different styles of wines, and think about how each one tastes. Take notes if you feel like it.
Learn how wine is labelled - it will allow you to recognize and pick out wines easier. In general, American wines are labelled by grape (Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, etc). European wines are labelled by what region they come from. Regions typically have a particular grape that constitutes most of the wine - for example, a Bordeaux is typically mostly Cabernet Sauvignon.
If you have a decent wine store in your area, start going there. It doesn’t have to be large - in fact, for beginners, a small store with a limited selection is probably a good thing. Get to know the owners and the employees. Let them recommend wine for you.
Don’t worry too much about pairing wine and food just yet. Get to know the wines first.
And yes, sweet wines can be very, very good. makes eyes at that bottle of dessert wine in the fridge
I like white Zin… Of course, I drink wine over ice. Always. Frequently from a juice glass. I’ve bought wine in a box. And I don’t like dry wine, but I don’t like the really sweet wines either.
Last Thanksgiving, my mom served us a $100 bottle of champagne that she and dad got for their 50th anniversary. I thought it tasted pretty nasty. It appears I’m not a good one to offer wine advice. But you can’t accuse me of bing a wine snob! 
Beginner’s tip - the single most important factor that determines how a wine tastes is the type of grape(s) used to make it.
This sounds pretty obvious but I have always been surprised at how many people don’t realise this. Try a few different varietals (wines made from only one grape) and start to get an idea of the characteristics of the main grapes - Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Shiraz (Syrah in France) reds and Chardonnay & Sauvignon Blanc whites.
…and one note - don’t over-chill the whites. If you like a super-cold, refreshing drink that’s fine, enjoy it but it seriously masks the taste of the wine, which is the point here - in fact it’s an interesting test (and good excuse to open 2 bottles!) to get 2 bottles of the same wine, chill one in the freezer to 1-2 degrees and cool the other gently in the fridge and then compare the two. The difference can be surprising.
Have fun!