Is this statement true or false... You should drink white wine with white meats and fish, red wine goes with beef, and sweet wines go with desserts.

The answer is false, but the truth is that until a couple decades ago this is how people decided what to drink with dinner. Fortunately, our minds have broadened. The current thinking is that since food can be every bit as complex as wine, the options for creating rich pairings are astounding. This cannot be stressed enough: a successful pairing is one that you find enjoyable but maybe no one else on the planet likes Champagne with liverwurst, but you happen to find the combination delightful.

If there is a rule of thumb it would be either to go for complementary flavors or flavors that contrast. A good example would be, a dish with citrus would be complemented by a fruity wine, a hearty stew would go well with a rich wine, and a carefully flavored dish would go well with a dry, crisp wine. Whereas a rich cream sauce would contrast well with a highly acidic dry wine and bread and cheese would go well with a full-bodied red. The best recommendation would be to experiment, open-mindedly, and frequently.

Below are some truths about how wine can react with certain food:

*A wine high in tannins paired with a food high in tannins will make the wine almost undrinkable.
*Protein calms tannins, so a very tannic wine might be go well with rare beef.
*Delicate foods like veal or filet of sole will be overwhelmed by a full-bodied red wine.
*A wine can add its primary flavor to a dish, giving food a layer it didn't start out with.
*Some wine and food combinations result in a flavor that was not present in either one and is not meant to be, metal for instance.
*Tannic wines will make sweet foods taste less sweet and salty foods emphasize tannin.
*Salty foods quiet the sweetness and enhance the fruitiness of a sweet wine.
*Wines that are high in acid taste less acidic with salty or sweet food; acidic wines also can offset oily foods.