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Step 1
Strive for a complementary pairing when you choose a red wine for your meal. Your wine selection should never detract from the food you're eating or compete with it. Instead, your red wine should add an extra dimension to the food, complementing its taste, substance and texture.
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Step 2
Follow traditional advice, and you'll end up pairing red wine with red meat. White wine is usually served with fish, chicken and other poultry. This is a good rule of thumb for new wine drinkers, because it's tough to go wrong when you keep it this simple.
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Step 3
Serve your driest wine first and save the sweeter red wines for dessert.
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Step 4
Pair red wine with the food from its region of origin, since each has evolved to complement the other. For instance, you can serve Spanish Rioja with paella or Lambrusco with an Italian antipasto.
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Step 5
Pair food that is hot and spicy with something to balance its strong flavors. Hot Indian food, like curry, actually works well with a wine that is sweet. This is one of the few instances where it is acceptable to serve a dessert wine before dessert.
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Step 6
Focus on your wine and cheese pairings. Pair Brie, Camembert or other soft cheeses with a good Burgundy or Cabernet.
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Step 7
Keep it light when pairing with pasta. Because pasta is so filling and loaded with carbs, you'll want to serve a light red wine such as Pinot Noir with noodles.
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Step 8
Save the Shiraz for a meal that will complement its peppery qualities. Shiraz and venison make an excellent and often unexpected combination, and Shiraz goes well with lamb, too.
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Step 9
Serve soup as a first course with a glass of Merlot.
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Step 10
Serve Port after dinner and feel free to pair it with chocolate. Chocolate is a natural complement to just about every red wine.
