Dinner with wine used to be simple. The rule was white wine with white meat and red wine with red meat. But most of us don’t just eat meat and potatoes or drink claret and chablis these days.

With modern fusion cuisine and wines from new regions around the world, the choices – and confusion – are great. One new school of thought is that any wine goes with any dish. However, most of us don’t put ketchup on our ice cream for the same reason as we don’t drink a delicate white wine with a hearty meat dish or a powerful red wine with sole – they are mismatched flavors and textures.  When the marriage of food and wine works well, each enhances the other, making the meal greater than if you had consumed them separately.

It helps to start with the basic principles of food and wine pairing as they still provide a basis for experimenting with new world cuisine. One of the most important elements to harmonize between wine and food is flavor. For example, a tangy tomato-based pasta sauce requires a wine with comparable acidity. Without this balance between the acidity of the dish and the wine, the partner with lower acidity tastes flabby and dull, while the other, too tart.

Acidic wines also work well with salty dishes. For example, oysters are both salty and briny with an oily mouth-coating texture that can smother most wines. However, a sparkling wine from California, a Spanish cava or French champagne can both refresh and cleanse your palate when eating fish. Bubblies also work well with spicy foods. Asian, Thai, curry and chili pepper dishes can numb the palate, so you need a wine with an acidic backbone as well as a touch of sweetness such as an off-dry fruity California sparkling wine.

While off-dry, acidic wines go well with many dishes, the two most difficult wines to pair with food are also the two most popular: chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. New World chardonnays can be oaky, buttery, flavorful wines that overwhelm many dishes. But you can still enjoy chardonnay with your meal. Pair it with butter and cream sauces to marry similar textures and flavors.

Conversely, cabernet sauvignons can have bitter dark fruit flavours with mouth drying tannins. Find their happiest match in foods with juicy proteins such as a rare steak, where the protein softens the tannin making the wine taste smooth and fruity. Steaks done with crushed black peppercorns sensitize your taste-buds, making the wine taste even more fruity and robust.

Proteins are also at work with the marriage of wine and cheese, the cocktail classic. Red wines tend to go better with hard cheeses such as blue cheese; whites suit soft cheeses such as brie and camembert.

Game birds such quail, pheasant, turkey, and duck have earthy flavors that are more robust than chicken. Wild game often goes better with racy red wines that have a gamy quality to them, the classic being Burgundian pinot noir. The flavors of pinot noir -- plum, cherry, mushrooms, earth and even barnyard (that’s a positive adjective) – accentuate the same gamy flavors in the food.

When it comes to barbecued and grilled dishes, go for robust reds such as shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and barolo. Argentine malbec is the Ultimate Summer Barbecue Wine. With its fleshy black fruit, dark spices and smoky notes, malbec muscles in beautifully beside most grilled fare: it's a sizzling combination.

One of the most challenging flavors to balance is sweetness. Glazed pork does well with off-dry wines such as riesling and chenin blanc, but rich desserts such as chocolate and crème brulée demand a wine that is sweeter than the dessert or the wine will taste thin, even bitter. Sweet wines such as sauternes, Canadian icewine, late harvest wines and port will work not only for their sweetness but also for their unctuous texture.

Your best source of food and wine matching is your own palate. Experiment with different combinations to discover not only what makes a perfect pairing for you, but also to broaden your range of possibilities. As the author Alexis Lichine observed, “There is no substitute for pulling corks.”

by Natalie MacLean

Internationally acclaimed wine critic Natalie MacLean is author of the bestseller Red, White and Drunk All Over.  A great gift idea for foodies and wine lovers!

More tips from Natalie at NatalieMacLean.com