What wine goes with what

Chicken tikka masala

Tandoori chicken in a creamy, mildly spiced tomato sauce — rich and sweet-edged rather than fiery.

Roast chicken

The most flexible dish in wine pairing — it works with almost anything, which is why it is the standard test.

Steak

Grilled or pan-seared beef — the classic partner for tannic red wine, and for a good structural reason.

Barbecue

Smoked, charred and usually sauced — sweet, salty and smoky all at once.

Beef stew

Slow-braised beef in a thickened, savoury liquid — deep umami and soft texture rather than char and grip.

Burger

Ground beef with cheese, sauce and bun — fatty, salty and often sweet from ketchup and relish.

Butter chicken

Murgh makhani — butter, cream, tomato and fenugreek, mild and distinctly sweet.

Carbonara

Egg, pecorino, guanciale and black pepper — salt and fat with no acidity at all.

Cheese board

Several cheeses at once — the pairing problem that has no single right answer, and one practical solution.

Curry

Spiced, often chilli-hot and aromatic — the category where most conventional pairing advice fails.

Fillet steak

The leanest and most tender cut — delicate in flavour, and easily overwhelmed by the big red most people reach for.

Fried chicken

Battered and deep-fried — salty, crisp and greasy, and the reason sparkling wine keeps winning.

Grilled chicken

Chicken over direct heat — leaner and smokier than roast, and lighter than most people pair for.

Grilled salmon

Char and rendered fat on an oily fish — a dish that takes red wine more happily than "white with fish" allows.

Lamb

Roasted or grilled lamb — fatty, gamey and the classic partner for Bordeaux and Rioja.

Margherita pizza

Tomato, mozzarella and basil — the acidity of the sauce against the mildness of the cheese.

Pad Thai

Stir-fried noodles with tamarind, fish sauce, peanut and lime — sweet, sour and salty, with heat added at the table.

Pizza

Tomato, cheese and char — acidic, salty and fatty in one dish.

Pork

Roast pork, chops or belly — leaner than beef, often with sweetness from apple or crackling.

Prawns

Sweet and firm, and endlessly variable — the sauce decides far more than the shellfish does.

Ragù bolognese

Slow-cooked meat sauce with a little tomato and often milk — richer and far less acidic than a plain tomato sauce.

Ribeye steak

The most heavily marbled common steak — fat running through the muscle, which changes how much tannin the dish can absorb.

Roast beef

Slow-roasted beef with gravy — richer and more savoury than steak, and a Sunday-lunch fixture.

Roast pork

Roasted pork with crackling and apple sauce — leaner than beef, and usually sweeter than people account for.

Roast turkey

Lean white meat with stuffing, bacon, cranberry and gravy — the bird is easy, the trimmings are not.

Salmon

Oily fish with enough richness to handle a light red as well as a full white.

Shellfish

Prawns, crab, mussels and clams — sweet, saline and best with crisp, unoaked whites.

Smoked salmon

Cold-smoked, oily and salty — a dish where salt and smoke matter more than the fish.

Thai green curry

Coconut, green chilli, lemongrass, lime leaf and fish sauce — hot, sweet, salty and sour at once.

Tomato pasta

Pasta with a tomato-based sauce — the acidity of the tomato is the whole pairing problem.

White fish

Cod, sea bass, haddock and similar — delicate, lean and easily overwhelmed.

Arrabbiata

Tomato, garlic and dried chilli — high acidity and real heat in the same sauce.

Bacalhau

Salt cod, rehydrated and cooked a hundred ways — intensely savoury, still salty, and firmer than fresh fish.

Barbecue chicken

Chicken in a sweet, smoky barbecue glaze — sweeter than most savoury dishes and pairing accordingly.

Beef bourguignon

Beef braised in red wine with bacon, mushrooms and onions — the dish that makes the regional pairing argument better than any other.

Beef short ribs

Fatty, gelatinous, slow-cooked beef, usually in a sticky glaze — rich enough to need serious structure.

Biryani

Layered spiced rice with meat, saffron and fried onion — aromatic and rich, with the heat usually moderate.

Bouillabaisse

Provençal fish stew with saffron, fennel and orange — intense, aromatic and not remotely delicate.

Bulgogi

Beef marinated in soy, pear and sesame, then grilled — sweet, savoury and only mildly hot.

Cacio e pepe

Pecorino and black pepper, and nothing else — intensely salty, sharply peppery and deceptively hard to pair.

Cassoulet

Beans, confit duck, sausage and pork slow-cooked together — one of the richest dishes in French cooking.

Ceviche

Raw fish cured in lime juice with chilli and onion — the most acidic dish in the catalogue.

Char siu and Cantonese roast meats

Honey-glazed barbecue pork and crisp roast duck — sweet, salty, smoky and fatty.

Charcuterie

Cured meats — salty, fatty and intensely savoury, and a genuine test of a wine’s acidity.

Chicken in cream sauce

Chicken with a cream, wine or mushroom sauce — where the sauce sets the weight and the acidity requirement.

Chicken with lemon

Roasted or braised with lemon, garlic and herbs — a dish whose acidity will expose any soft wine.

Chicken with mushrooms

A mild protein under an intensely savoury sauce — the mushrooms pick the wine.

Chilli con carne

Spiced beef and beans with real chilli heat — a red-meat dish where a big red is the wrong instinct.

Chorizo

Paprika-cured pork, smoky and often spicy — a small dish with a very loud flavour.

Cod

Meaty, flaky and mild — the white fish with enough substance to take a fuller wine.

Crab

Sweet white meat and rich brown meat — two different pairing problems in one shell.

Creamy pasta

Carbonara, alfredo or a mushroom cream sauce — fat is the dominant variable.

Dal

Spiced lentils, from a soupy tarka dal to a rich dal makhani — earthy, savoury and often surprisingly buttery.

Dim sum

Many small steamed and fried dishes at once — delicate, salty and impossible to pair with a single ideal wine.

Duck

Rich, fatty poultry with gamey depth — one of the most wine-friendly things you can cook.

Duck confit

Duck legs cooked and preserved in their own fat — very rich, deeply savoury, and salty from the cure.

Dumplings

Steamed or fried parcels with a soy and vinegar dip — mild in themselves, decided by the dipping sauce.

Fish and chips

Battered fried fish with vinegar and salt — fat and acid in equal measure.

Fish pie

Fish in a creamy sauce under mashed potato — comfort food whose weight comes entirely from the dairy.

Fish tacos

Fried or grilled fish with lime, cabbage and crema — light, sharp and much more delicate than most Mexican food.

French onion soup

Deeply caramelised onions in beef stock under melted cheese — sweet, savoury and salty at once.

Gambas al ajillo

Prawns in sizzling garlic and olive oil with a little chilli — the tapas dish that defines the genre.

Greek salad

Tomato, cucumber, olive, feta and oregano with olive oil — salty, sharp and herbal.

Grilled lamb

Skewered or butterflied lamb over fire, often with lemon and oregano — smoky, herbal and Mediterranean in shape.

Grilled vegetables

Courgette, pepper, aubergine and onion over fire with olive oil — sweet, smoky and gently bitter.

Haddock

Slightly sweeter and finer-flaked than cod, and frequently smoked — which changes everything.

Ham

Cured, often glazed and always salty — one of the dishes where salt drives everything.

Hummus

Chickpea and tahini purée with lemon and garlic — nutty, sharp and much richer than it looks.

Jalfrezi

Stir-fried curry with peppers, onions, green chilli and tomato — hot, fresh and comparatively lean.

Jamón ibérico

Air-dried Iberian ham — intensely salty, nutty and fatty, and the dish Sherry exists for.

Katsu

Panko-crumbed and deep-fried pork or chicken with a sweet, tangy brown sauce.

Korean barbecue

Grilled marinated meat with kimchi and gochujang — sweet, salty, fermented, smoky and hot at once.

Korean fried chicken

Twice-fried chicken in a sweet, garlicky, chilli-hot glaze — fat, sugar and heat together.

Korma

Mild, creamy and nut-thickened, with cardamom and almond — the gentlest curry, and a genuinely easy pairing.

Lamb chops

Grilled cutlets with a rim of fat and plenty of char — more intense and smokier than a roast leg.

Lamb kofta

Spiced minced lamb grilled on skewers — warm spice, char and fat, usually with yoghurt alongside.

Lamb shank

Slow-braised until it falls off the bone — deep, sticky and much higher in umami than grilled lamb.

Lasagne

Layered pasta with ragù and béchamel — tomato acidity plus dairy fat plus meat umami, all at once.

Macaroni cheese

Pasta in a baked cheese sauce — dairy fat, salt and umami with nothing sharp anywhere.

Mackerel

Intensely oily and strongly flavoured — the fish that defeats a gentle white entirely.

Mapo tofu

Sichuan tofu in fermented bean paste with chilli and Sichuan pepper — hot, numbing and enormously savoury.

Meat pizza

Pepperoni, salami, sausage and ham — salt, fat and spice piled onto an acidic base.

Meatballs

Herbed minced meat, usually in tomato sauce — where the tomato decides the wine, not the meat.

Melanzane alla parmigiana

Layered aubergine, tomato and cheese, baked — acidic, rich and savoury, and vegetarian by accident rather than design.

Meze

Hummus, tzatziki, flatbread, olives, tahini and pickles — many small salty, tangy things at once.

Mushroom pasta

Earthy, savoury and umami-heavy — the vegetarian pasta that genuinely wants a red wine.

Mussels

Steamed in white wine, cider or cream — briny, and usually served in a broth that sets the pairing.

Osso buco

Veal shin braised slowly with wine and stock, finished with gremolata — rich, savoury and gelatinous.

Oysters

Raw, saline and iodine-rich — one of the few foods with a genuinely narrow set of good wine partners.

Patatas bravas

Fried potato with a smoky, mildly spicy tomato sauce and often aioli — fat, acid and paprika together.

Peking duck

Crisp-skinned duck with hoisin, cucumber and pancakes — the Chinese dish that most clearly wants a red wine.

Pesto pasta

Basil, pine nuts, garlic, Parmesan and olive oil — herbal and green, which is a flavour match rather than a structural one.

Piri-piri chicken

Chicken grilled with chilli, garlic and lemon — hot, charred and sharply acidic all at once.

Pork belly

The fattiest cut there is, usually with a crisp salty skin — an acidity problem more than anything else.

Pork chops

Pan-fried or grilled, leaner than most pork dishes, and easily overpowered.

Pulled pork

Slow-cooked shoulder shredded into a sweet, tangy barbecue sauce — the sauce is the dish.

Ramen

Noodles in a long-simmered savoury broth — enormous umami, high salt, and a genuinely difficult wine dish.

Ratatouille

Slow-cooked Provençal summer vegetables — tomato-led, herbal, and more acidic than it looks.

Risotto

Creamy rice, usually with butter, cheese and stock — rich, savoury and texturally soft.

Rogan josh

Kashmiri lamb curry, deep red with dried chilli and fennel — aromatic and rich, with moderate rather than fierce heat.

Saag paneer

Spinach and fresh cheese — green, iron-rich and mildly bitter, which is an unusual pairing problem.

Salads and vinaigrette

Light and fresh, but the vinegar in the dressing is the real pairing obstacle.

Salmon in a cream sauce

Fat on fat — the dish where a rich white finally makes sense, provided it has acidity underneath.

Saltimbocca

Veal with prosciutto and sage in a butter and wine pan sauce — salty, herbal and surprisingly delicate.

Samosas and pakoras

Deep-fried spiced pastries and fritters, usually with a sweet-sour chutney — fat, salt and spice in one bite.

Sardines

Small, oily and usually grilled whole over fire — salt, oil and char in one mouthful.

Sashimi

Raw fish without rice — cleaner, more delicate and more umami-driven than sushi.

Sausage and mash

Bangers, mashed potato and onion gravy — salty, fatty and unpretentious.

Sausages

Fatty, salty, herb-seasoned — a robust dish that wants an unfussy red.

Scallops

Sweet, dense and usually seared in butter — richer than most shellfish and a genuine match for oaked white.

Sea bass

Fine-textured and delicate with crisp skin — a dish that a heavy wine will simply erase.

Seafood pasta

Clams, prawns or mixed shellfish with garlic, oil and often chilli — saline and light.

Shawarma and kebabs

Spit-roasted spiced meat with garlic sauce, pickles and flatbread — smoky, salty and sharply garnished.

Shepherd’s pie

Minced lamb in gravy under mashed potato — savoury, soft and comfortingly heavy.

Sichuan cooking

Chilli and Sichuan pepper together — heat plus a numbing tingle that behaves unlike anything else on a wine list.

Smoked brisket

Long-smoked beef with a peppery bark — the most smoke-dominated dish in the catalogue.

Spicy chicken

Peri-peri, buffalo, jerk or hot-wing chicken — where chilli heat governs everything.

Spicy salmon

Chilli on an oily fish — the heat sets the rules and the fish barely gets a vote.

Squid and octopus

Fried calamari or grilled octopus — chewy, salty and either crisp-fried or heavily charred.

Steak and ale pie

Beef braised in dark beer under pastry — deep, malty and faintly bitter.

Steak au poivre

Steak in a cracked-pepper and cream sauce — where the sauce, not the beef, picks the wine.

Steak with béarnaise

Steak under an emulsion of butter, egg yolk, vinegar and tarragon — the sauce that quietly turns a red-wine dish into an acidity problem.

Steak with blue-cheese sauce

Two of the most assertive things on a plate at once, and the sauce is louder than the beef.

Steak with chimichurri

Grilled beef under a raw sauce of parsley, garlic, oregano, chilli and vinegar — herbal, sharp and much livelier than it looks.

Steak with mushroom sauce

Earthy and savoury rather than rich — the sauce that pushes steak towards Burgundy and Barolo.

Steak with red-wine sauce

A reduction concentrates everything the wine had — and asks for a wine that can answer it.

Sushi and sashimi

Raw fish with vinegared rice, soy and wasabi — delicate but with sharp accompaniments.

Sweet and sour dishes

Battered pork or chicken in a sugar-and-vinegar sauce — genuinely sweet, which changes the wine entirely.

Tacos al pastor

Spit-roasted marinated pork with pineapple, onion and coriander — smoky, sweet and sharply garnished.

Tandoori chicken

Yoghurt-marinated chicken cooked in a clay oven — smoky, tangy and dry, with no sauce to complicate matters.

Tapas

Small Spanish plates — jamón, tortilla, padrón peppers, croquetas, anchovies. Salty, varied, and Sherry’s natural home.

Tempura

Feather-light batter, deep-fried — delicate in flavour and greasy in texture at the same time.

Teriyaki

Grilled meat or fish in a soy, mirin and sugar glaze — sweet, salty and umami-heavy.

Teriyaki salmon

Sweet, salty and glazed — the sugar in the sauce decides the wine, not the fish.

Thai red curry

Hotter and deeper than green curry, built on dried red chilli — more heat, less herbal lift.

Tortilla española

Potato and onion omelette — mild, rich and eggy, and a genuinely awkward pairing for its simplicity.

Trout

Moderately oily freshwater fish, often with almonds or lemon — lighter than salmon, richer than cod.

Tuna

Meaty, umami-rich fish that behaves more like red meat than like white fish.

Turkey

Lean white meat, usually served with a crowd of sweet and salty accompaniments.

Vegetarian dishes

A broad category where the cooking method and seasoning matter far more than the vegetables.

Vindaloo

Goan pork curry with chilli and vinegar — hot and sharp at the same time, and the hardest curry for wine.

Yakitori

Grilled chicken skewers, either salted or glazed — and which of the two decides the wine.

Baba ganoush

Charred aubergine with tahini and lemon — smoky, bitter-edged and one of the more wine-friendly dips.

Beef carpaccio

Raw beef sliced thin with lemon, oil and Parmesan — a delicate dish that shares almost nothing with cooked steak.

Carnitas

Pork slow-cooked in its own fat then crisped — rich and salty, cut with lime and raw onion.

Chicken liver pâté

Rich, mineral and offal-driven, usually spread on toast — a starter with a surprising sweet-wine tradition.

Clams

Sweet, briny and small — most often in a garlic-and-wine broth or tossed through pasta.

Coq au vin

Chicken braised in red wine with bacon and mushrooms — a white-meat dish that behaves like a red-meat one.

Cornish pasty

Beef, potato, swede and onion in pastry — peppery, savoury and substantial.

Enchiladas

Filled tortillas baked under chilli sauce and cheese — rich, savoury and moderately hot.

Falafel

Deep-fried spiced chickpeas with tahini and pickles — earthy, herbal and dry-textured.

Game birds

Pheasant, partridge, grouse and pigeon — leaner, darker and more mineral than farmed poultry.

Gnocchi

Soft potato dumplings — mild and starchy, taking their character wholly from the sauce.

Goose

Rich, fatty and gamey — a Christmas bird that needs far more acidity than turkey does.

Halibut

Firm, dense and faintly sweet — the white fish that behaves most like white meat.

Herb-crusted lamb

Rack of lamb in a breadcrumb, garlic and herb crust — the herbs, not the meat, are the aromatic lead.

Lobster

Rich, sweet shellfish, usually served with butter — one of the few seafoods that wants an oaked white.

Massaman curry

Mild, sweet and warmly spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and peanut — the gentlest Thai curry.

Mole

A long-cooked sauce of dried chillies, nuts, spices and chocolate — deep, dark, faintly bitter and unlike anything else.

Monkfish

Dense and firm enough to be roasted like meat, and often wrapped in bacon or served with red wine sauce.

Moussaka

Layered aubergine, spiced lamb and béchamel — rich, savoury and gently cinnamon-scented.

Mushroom pizza

Earthy and savoury rather than salty — the pizza that suits a lighter, more savoury red.

Paella

Saffron rice with seafood or meat — savoury, saline and aromatic.

Pho and Vietnamese food

Clear aromatic broth, fresh herbs, lime and fish sauce — delicate, savoury and unusually clean.

Ploughman’s lunch

Cheddar, ham, pickle, bread and apple — salty and sharply pickled, which rules out most reds.

Pork pie and picnic food

Cold pastry, seasoned pork and jelly, usually with pickle — salty, fatty and eaten cold.

Quiche and tarts

Egg, cream and pastry with cheese, onion or bacon — soft, rich and low in acidity.

Rabbit

Lean, mild and closer to chicken than to game — usually braised with herbs, mustard or white wine.

Satay

Grilled skewers with a sweet, salty peanut sauce — char and nut richness with moderate heat.

Sole

The most delicate fish in common use, classically finished in butter — subtle to the point of fragility.

Spicy pizza

Nduja, spicy salami or chilli oil — the pizza where alcohol becomes the problem.

Tabbouleh

Parsley, mint, tomato and bulgur with a great deal of lemon — herbal and sharply acidic.

Tagine

Slow-cooked North African stew with dried fruit, preserved lemon and warm spice — sweet-savoury and aromatic.

Thai salads

Som tam, larb and their relatives — raw, fiercely hot, sour and salty, with almost no fat to soften anything.

Tofu dishes

Neutral in itself and defined entirely by its treatment — the sauce is the whole pairing.

Vegetarian burgers and bakes

Bean, mushroom or plant-protein patties with the usual sauces — savoury and sweet-condimented.

Venison and game

Lean, intensely savoury game meat that wants a wine with earthy, tertiary complexity.

White pizza

No tomato — cheese, cream, potato or garlic on the base, which removes the acidity entirely.

Cheddar and hard cheese

Salty, fatty and increasingly savoury with age — better with red wine than most cheese is.

Hard cheese

Aged, firm and concentrated — the family that comes closest to justifying the red-wine rule.

Stilton

Crumbly English blue, salty and mineral — and the reason Port exists on so many Christmas tables.

Bloomy-rind cheese

Soft, white-rinded and mushroomy — Brie, Camembert and their relatives, where fat and umami rise sharply with ripeness.

Blue cheese

Salty, pungent and sharp — and the classic case for pairing sweetness against salt.

Brie and soft cheese

Creamy, buttery, mushroomy soft cheese — richer than it looks and best with acidity or bubbles.

Camembert

Stronger, earthier and more pungent than Brie — the mushroomy end of the bloomy-rind family.

Comté

Nutty, brothy Alpine cheese with crystalline crunch — one of the great white-wine cheeses.

Feta

Brined Greek sheep’s cheese — sharp, salty and crumbly, and firmly a white-wine cheese.

Fresh cheese

Unaged, milky and mild — mozzarella, ricotta, burrata, curd. The most delicate cheese family.

Goat cheese

Tangy, chalky and high in acidity — and the textbook Sauvignon Blanc pairing.

Gorgonzola

The mildest of the great blues in its dolce form — creamy, sweet-edged and much easier to pair.

Gouda

Mild and supple when young, butterscotch-sweet and crystalline when old — two different cheeses under one name.

Gruyère

Dense Alpine cheese, savoury and slightly sweet — the melting cheese, and a fondue in its own right.

Halloumi

Squeaky brined cheese that holds its shape when grilled — salt plus char, and no acidity.

Manchego

Firm Spanish sheep’s cheese, nutty and lanolin-rich — the standard partner for Spanish reds and Sherry.

Mozzarella

Milky, mild and elastic — almost always eaten with tomato, which does the pairing work.

Pecorino

Hard, salty Italian sheep’s cheese — sharper and considerably saltier than Parmesan.

Roquefort

Sheep’s-milk blue, intensely salty and piercing — the sharpest of the major blues.

Sheep’s cheese

Richer, sweeter and more lanolin-scented than cow’s milk — Manchego, Pecorino, Ossau-Iraty, Roquefort.

Parmesan

Intensely savoury, crystalline and salty — extremely high in umami.

Washed-rind cheese

Orange-rinded, sticky and famously pungent — Époisses, Munster, Taleggio. The hardest cheese family for wine.

Chinese food

Varies enormously by region — but soy, ginger and sweet-sour sauces recur and shape the pairing.

Mexican food

Chilli, lime, coriander and smoke — bright, hot and herbaceous.

Thai food

Hot, sour, salty and sweet at once — aromatic and demanding of the wine.

Asparagus

Notoriously difficult: a green, sulphurous vegetable that makes many wines taste metallic.

Aubergine

Meaty, oil-absorbing and faintly bitter — the vegetable that most readily takes a red wine.

Lentils and beans

Earthy, savoury and starchy — the vegetarian base that most reliably supports a red wine.

Mushrooms

Earthy and intensely umami — one of the few vegetarian ingredients that genuinely calls for red wine.

Olives

Salty, bitter and briny — a small thing that makes a big difference to what is in the glass.

Tomato

High in both acidity and umami — the combination that makes low-acid wines taste flat.

Artichoke

Contains cynarin, which makes whatever you drink next taste sweet — a genuine chemical obstacle.

Beetroot

Earthy and genuinely sweet — one of the few vegetables that points at red wine on its own.

Cauliflower and brassicas

Sprouts, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower — sulphurous and bitter raw, sweet and nutty roasted.

Peppers

Sweet when roasted, green and vegetal when raw — and the vegetable most directly echoed by a wine compound.

Squash and pumpkin

Sweet, dense and slightly nutty when roasted — a vegetable that wants texture rather than sharpness.

Truffle

Intensely aromatic and earthy — one of the few ingredients that can dominate a wine entirely.

Chocolate

Bitter, fatty and sweet — genuinely difficult, and the source of a lot of bad pairing advice.

Chocolate cake

Warm, rich and very sweet — sugar, fat and cocoa bitterness together at their most demanding.

Dark chocolate

Bitter as much as sweet — the confection that defeats most wine, including most dessert wine.

Apple desserts

Apple pie, crumble and tarte tatin — sweet, spiced and sharpened by the fruit.

Cheesecake

Dense, tangy and very rich — the cream cheese gives it an acidity most desserts lack.

Christmas pudding

Steamed dried fruit, spice and suet — dense, dark and about as sweet as food gets.

Crème brûlée

Vanilla custard under burnt sugar — rich, eggy and faintly bitter from the caramel.

Fruit desserts

Tarts, crumbles and poached fruit — sweet with real acidity from the fruit itself.

Fruit tart

Pastry, crème pâtissière and fresh fruit — sweet and acidic at the same time.

Ice cream

Cold, sweet and fatty — and the temperature is itself a pairing problem.

Lemon tart

Sharp citrus curd in pastry — sweet and genuinely acidic, which raises the bar for the wine twice over.

Milk chocolate

Sweeter, creamier and far less bitter than dark — much easier to pair, and a different problem entirely.

Sticky toffee pudding

Date sponge under toffee sauce — the sweetest thing in British cooking, and it needs matching.

Tiramisu

Coffee-soaked sponge, mascarpone and cocoa — sweet, bitter and creamy at once.

Creamy desserts

Crème brûlée, panna cotta and cheesecake — rich, sweet and fatty.

A cheese and charcuterie board

Several incompatible things at once — and the reason one bottle rarely suits the whole board.

A summer barbecue

Char, smoke, sweet glazes and a lot of different plates — where serving temperature matters as much as the bottle.

Christmas dinner

Turkey, stuffing, cranberry, sprouts and pigs-in-blankets — the hardest plate of the year to pair.

Sunday roast

Roast meat, potatoes, vegetables and gravy — rich, savoury and forgiving.

Before dinner, with something small

Olives, nuts, crisps — salty things eaten standing up, where the wine has a specific job.

Afternoon tea

Scones, cream, jam, cake and delicate sandwiches — sweet, buttery and light all at once.

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