Always serve wines you enjoy yourself and want to share. Whatever people may say there are no hard and fast rules to food and wine pairing. One man’s pleasure will be another’s man poison… The one rule that it really is worth bearing in mind is to try and match ‘weight’.
So, if you are cooking up a rich, beefy, stew you’d be best to stay away from light, fragrant wines. It makes sense to pick something that’s as hearty as the meal itself. Equally, a delicate dish of spring vegetables will probably shine best with something lighter and fragrant. But, when all is said and done, choose what you fancy.
The temperature you serve the wine at is probably one of the most important factors when it comes to serving wine and whilst you shouldn’t be sweating over the odd degree or two, it is useful to try and get fairly close to the ideal temperature. You can read a bit more about it all here.
If you need to decant - and haven’t done it before - have a look at our decanting guide. Decanting virgins may want to do it behind closed doors until you’ve had a bit of practice. Remember not to decant too early; especially when you’re serving very old wines.
Glasses also have a part to play and again, we’ve got a brief guide online if you’re heading out to buy some new ones but the most important factors are to make sure they’re clean and free of dust and cupboard odours and ideally, they should be made from clear glass.
Perhaps the best piece of advice we can give - especially if you’re new to wine - is to remember to record what you thought of the wine and perhaps even take a photograph of it. It’s a great thing to do because over a fairly short period of time you’ll being to build a little catalogue of what you do and don’t like. It’s invaluable information as you move forward on your wine drinking journey as it’ll help steer you to new things you might like and will give our team a very good idea of wines you might like to try should you decide to ask for advice.