The Perfect Wine Will Not Only Taste Great, but Also Enhance the Flavor of Your MealYou’ve finally planned the perfect dinner. You picked the best recipe and the best ingredients. Now however you are faced with the most difficult of all of your decisions: What wine should you serve with you food?Picking the right wine is easy to accomplish if you go into the experience having some idea of what you are looking for. Ultimately, you want to pick a wine that is going to complement what you are serving. The perfect wine will not only taste great, but also enhance the flavor of the  food that you are serving along with it. In order to do that you need to take a close look at what you plan of serving for your meal, and what types of flavors are going to be present already at your table before you introduce your wine. Purchasing a bottle of wine for dinner like inviting another guest over for your dinner party, you want to make sure that they are going to get along with everyone who has already been invited.A good rule of thumb if for lighter dishes, such as fish or poultry choose a white wine. For heavier dishes like steak select a heavier red wine. The heavier your wine is, the better its ability to combat the other tastes in your meal.Heavy foods will often overpower the taste of a good light white wine, just as a heavy red will often overpower a lighter food choice. You want to select a wine to go with your meal that is going to help bring out the best in your wine, and your food. Not a wine that overpowers your food, or has to live in the shadow of the bold flavors from your dish.You can often get away with more wine choices when preparing lighter dishes. With a lighter food such as seafood or poultry you can pair fantastic white wines, or be adventurous and select a red. As long as you don’t select a truly bold wine the wine will often go along well with your food. Heavier, bolder flavored meals such as a steak in rich sauces however command a much bolder wine. Lighter white wines will get lost in your meals flavor, and as a result will seem to have no identity of their own within your meal.

Suggestions from Champagne to CabernetNot long ago, I started throwing wine-tasting parties for my friends. They raved about them so much that I turned it into a small business. Last year, I launched www.wine-tasting party.com, which offers my consultation services for people who wish to have a  professionally run wine-tasting party for their friends, family and colleagues or to conduct a fund-raiser. I bring the wine, the glasses, the tasting notes and a fun, educational way to learn about wine. But, anyone can throw a wine-tasting party in his or her own home inexpensively. First pickFirst, decide how many wines you want to taste. I recommend a total of six wines — three whites and three reds. Now, for those of you that don’t know much about wine and are asking yourself how you’re going to pick out six wines for a party, don’t panic. Pick up a copy of a reputable wine magazine such as Wine Spectator or Wine Enthusiast and see what wines they have rated for the month. Try some of the wines that they have rated more than 80 points. Be adventurous and try wines from countries other than our own. You also can ask your wine merchant to help suggest some wines for you. Budget bestsSet a budget. You’ll be surprised to find that there are good, quality wines for less than $20. Many of the wines in these magazines can be found in this price range, and there are a lot of stores you can buy from that will give you an additional discount on a mixed case of wine. Tasting totalsSo, how many bottles do you need? One bottle of wine from a standard 750ml bottle will provide enough wine for 15 people. Remember these are tasting sizes (about one or two shots worth), not full or half glasses filled with wine. But, of course, once the “tasting” portion is over, you want to have some wine left over for your guests to go back to their favorites. For a party of 15 to 20 people, you will need three to four bottles of each wine. If your guests are not heavy drinkers like my friends are, go for three. Two of each wine will suffice for the tasting portion. You can mix up the extra bottles however you like. Paired off