Serving Wine with Food
The rules, or alleged rules, that have arisen governing the types of
wines to be drunk with different types of food are not fixed or rigid.
They have become general practice simply because certain combinations of
wine and food give a better, or more generally acceptable balance to a
meal.
Wine with the hors d'oeuvres
With the hors d'oeuvres: In a restaurant, the whole meal, including the
hors d'oeuvres, is eaten at the table. At home, the hors d'oeuvres
frequently are served before sitting to the meal. If the weather is
cool, a dry sherry is a suitable accompaniment, partly because hors
d'oeuvres are small, highly flavored "tidbits" and sit better with a
small amount of strong flavorsome wine; but if the weather is warm, a
big, flavorsome dry white is often used. The big, cool wine is
acceptable as a beverage to take the edge off one's thirst with just
enough food to do the same for one's appetite.
Wine with Soup
With soup: Some people contend that sherry is the ideal accompaniment
for soup, but it depends on the soup. The very heavy soups—toheroa or
mulligatawny—will overpower almost any wine and therefore are best taken
without wine; the thin consomm9s are almost a beverage in themselves and
need no wine.
Wine with the Entree
With the entree: Fish usually is accompanied by a white wine that is
delicate and a little acid to counteract the blandness of the fish, but
not to overpower its somewhat delicate flavor. Some of the rose wines
are admirable accompaniment to the entree. The general principle of wine
with a meal is to begin with light, delicate wines, proceeding to the
fuller bodied, as the food does, ending the meal with port or brandy.
The entree wine therefore should be light in color, bouquet and flavor.
With the main dish: The dry red beverage wines are best for this part of
the meal for they will suit most food that is served as the main dish.
Even chicken or veal will take a dry red without clashing; it is simply
a matter of selecting a suitable dry red for the particular dish. For
example, the richness of pork calls for a hard rather than a soft
wine—claret in style rather than burgundy—whilst beef, duck and game sit
better with big dry reds. The lighter meats—lamb, veal, chicken and
small game birds—are best accompanied by light red wines.
 Wine with
the Cheese
With the cheese: Cheese once was considered to be the last course of a
meal, but more and more today one finds it immediately following the
main course, even if there is a dessert to come. The most probable
reason for this change is that a full bodied dry red is the best
accompaniment to cheese. To serve a sweet at this time, changing to a
wine suitable to it, and then back to a dry red for the cheese would be
to place too great a strain on the elasticity of one's palate. If the
cheese follows the main dish, one can go on drinking dry red without
pause!
Wine with the Dessert
With the dessert: A dessert wine is essential; muscat, tokay,
frontignac, or champagne. But nothing will follow the champagne very
happily—certainly not coffee. Port will do very well at this stage of
the meal, particularly if you insist on serving cheese last, for port
and cheese sit very well together.
Wine with the Coffee
With the coffee: Some people just like to go on with the dry red.
Sometimes there is port or a dessert wine. On occasion, brandy is the
order to end the meal. There used to be a lot of nonsense about pouring
hot water into the brandy balloon to heat it, then pouring in a little
brandy. The tulip shaped glass is more than adequate and the hands will
warm the brandy slowly. There is enough time, for the brandy should be
sipped, not quaffed.
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