What order to serve wines in

The conventional order is light before heavy, dry before sweet, white before red, and young before old. It is worth knowing why, because the reasoning tells you when the rule stops applying.

The mechanism is palate adaptation. Having tasted something intense, the palate reads the next thing as weaker than it is: a delicate Chablis after a Barossa Shiraz tastes thin and watery, while the same two glasses in the other order both show properly. Sweetness works the same way and more strongly — anything dry tasted after a dessert wine will read as sour.

Young before old is a different argument. It is about attention rather than perception: an older wine usually has more to say and less obvious fruit, and it is better met by a table that is paying attention than by one three glasses in.

The place the rule genuinely breaks is food. If the light white belongs with the fish course and the fish comes second, serve it second. The order of the food wins, because a pairing that works is worth more than a sequence that flatters each wine in isolation.