How to Select Wine in a Restaurant

Selecting a wine in a restaurant can be daunting and often is a difficult task. Is it the first time you visited this restaurant or did you come here before with some other people? When you have visited this restaurant before it is a little bit easier to make the right choice because you have seen that leather book with all the different wines before and probably you did already a lot of research of different wines they have in their list. Hopefully they didn't change the list otherwise the benefit of your research is limited.

Almost every restaurant can offer you a house wine which is often less expensive and in many cases suitable for everyone. This gives you an idea about the quality of that restaurant. Ask the server some information about the wine and you will probably know if this wine can be suitable for your dinner.

You are now with your friends, some business guests or with a date in a restaurant and you need to decide which wine you are going to order. Ask your friends what they are going to order: meat or fish; this will make the choice easier because the color of wine is a little bit associated with food. If your guests are ordering a light meal you can limit your choice between some softer red or white wines. If they order a mixed table maybe you can better select some wines like a Pinot Noir or a chardonnay.

The budget is also an important factor. If you didn't look to the prices before you will be surprised how expensive the bill can be. There are bottles of $25.00 but you can find in many restaurants some wines which cost you more than $250.00. There are mostly choices in the $25.00 and $35.00 rank to make your choice and to have a nice dinner.
How many bottles do you need to order? In most cases we can say that one bottle is suitable for three moderate drinkers. If it is not sufficient for your dinner; you can order a new bottle when the bottles are almost empty.

If you are going abroad and you want to order some wine I suggest you to ask the waiter for some assistance. When you are going to a restaurant in France, a country well known for its wines, it is not easy to make the right choice. Restaurants in France have a special custom of selecting wines in their wine list.

Sommeliers in France select the wines by tasting a great variety of different wines supplied by distributors and of course by visiting some well known wineries directly. They can make a choice and put some kinds of wine immediately on the list but they will also select which can be suitable for the future. Advice of the waiter is almost "a must" in France if you want to select the most suitable for your dinner!

In other countries where the choice is limited and if you don't have a great knowledge about the different wines you can also best rely on the waiter's advice and mostly he will advice you some local wines.

Some suggestions for wines associated with food are:

- Dry Riesling: for salmon
- Slightly sweet wines like Riesling; Ross and Frontignac wines for Chinese food
- Fruity Sauvignon Blanc wines and Ross are a perfect choice for Mexican food; also a Pinot noir or a light Merlot is a good choice
- Merlot is the perfect wine for beef, lamb, pork, duck and pizza
- Ros is suitable for all kinds of food but best with smoked foods, pork and ham.
- Semillon: for grilled fish

It is sometimes difficult to select the perfect one because everyone has another taste but some matches like sweet wine with sweet food; red wine with red meat, white wine with fish are mostly true.

Wine gives always a special effect to your dinner. Try to select wine which all your guests probably like and you can have a lot of fun!