Many people enjoy wine on a night out or with a meal, but many people don’t know just how well wine can complement your food if you know how to match them together properly. Although the whole thing is subjective, hence there’s no absolute right or wrong answers, there are a few general guidelines to which flavours will complement each other.

So to help you compliment your food properly, here’s a quick guide to matching food and wine together. We’ll have a look at red grape varieties first, looking at which foods compliment them the best:

Barbera
This is a very nice Italian wine that goes extremely well with tomato-based dishes such as lasagne and spaghetti bolognaise.

Cabernet Sauvignon
Wines with a medium or full bodied taste that will always fit nicely with roasted beef or lamb.

Merlot
Merlots go beautifully with roast chicken and will also work with duck or turkey, making them perfect for those Sunday roasts.

Pinot Noir
Another grape that’s more that suitable for Sunday dinners (or Christmas dinners for that matter), these wines will go very well with roast lamb or turkey.

Syrah
These wines are full bodies and go wonderfully with winter foods. Goes very well with roasted vegetables and will make the perfect accompaniment to a grilled steak dish.

So that gives you an idea of the kinds of foods you’ll want to match with your red wine collection. If you prefer white wines to red, then here’s a little guide to the different grape varieties to help you pick when you’re aiming to buy wine online or at the off-license for the next dinner party you’re hosting:

Chardonnay
Chardonnays go very well with roasted meats such as turkey or chicken, and can also go extremely well with fish.

Sauvignon Blanc
One of the nicest French wines that fit perfectly with chees, particularly goat’s cheese and blue cheese.

Reisling
Reislings go wonderfully with chicken based curries (like kormas) and will also work amazingly well with a Thai green curry.