The thing that every gourmet hopes to find in a restaurant - apart from a tempting menu - is an interesting wine list. This is a tangible sign of professionalism and care for the customer, who goes to a restaurant not only to satisfy his appetite but to meet with friends and to enjoy good food and wine. The list should show the wines in a logical order (sparkling wines, white wines, red wines, dessert wines), if possible with specific indications of the zone of origin, the name of the producer, the vintage, the grape variety, etc.. When one does not have much time, and especially patience, one can always seek guidance from the waiter or, better yet, the sommelier. This person is an extremely important figure: an ambassador whose role it is to communicate the world of wine and its varied facets to the customer. Besides, it will be a real pleasure for him to tell you about his cellar and the wines he has carefully set aside. He will be very grateful for your interest and he will undoubtedly be able to give you all the information you need to know.
Following the sommelier’s suggestions is, therefore, the simplest way to choose a wine, but it is even more fun to keep on discovering new pairings, flavors and scents based on the range of wines and food that the restaurant has to offer. Our choice will also depend a great deal on the dish we have ordered, on the particular situation, on our mood, on who our fellow diners are and, to no small extent, on price.
In Italy today, we are often offered wines from the particular area to go with the local specialties, and in some cases we are also very conveniently given the chance to buy them by the glass. This allows us to taste several different wines and so match wines to the particular nuances of the recipes.
If by chance we taste the wine and do not find that it corresponds to our expectations, we should have no hesitation in bringing up the matter with the sommelier. We should always remember that the dining experience is one based on pleasure and conviviality; we should therefore not allow a faulty wine to spoil what might be an important occasion.
Wine does its job best when it serves the overall dining experience, thanks to its natural capacity, when it is well chosen, to enliven the food without being either intrusive or submissive, cleansing the palate between one mouthful and the next and so reinvigorating our desire to take another bite.
If there is no doubt about our right to be subjective when choosing what wine to match with what food, it is equally certain that some pairings work better than others and are particularly successful in stimulating a general feeling of well-being. To that end, we will give here some general indications as to possible criteria for selecting wines based on the type of food they are to accompany and suggest some classic examples of pairings. However, we remain convinced that, partly due to the unpredictable way many foods taste when they are cooked, imagination and personal inventiveness cannot but lead to greater interest and enjoyment in the realm of matching wines with food.
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