Top Of The Table

Christopher De Voss

Nov. 1, 2001

Now before we begin, let me say that you should always strive to learn your job and gain as much knowledge about your job no matter what your career. However, on that note, wines scare a lot of servers, especially the suggesting of wines. This is a little cheat sheet for you, until your wine knowledge becomes richer. Even if your restaurant has sommeliers (wine stewards) you should try to gain as much wine knowledge as possible.

We all pretty much know the two basic rules of wine:

One: Red wines with meat. White wines with fish.

Two: Drink what you like.

Rule number two is good if you're the guest, but not so good when asked to suggest a wine to go with the course just ordered. The important thing to remember is that matching wine and food changes the aroma and flavors of both, so it's important to have a good balance.

This cheat sheet will give you the extreme basics to start with and then you will be able to work up from there, remember sauces and sides play an important part also. Once you get comfortable with the basics, then you will be able to customize based on more on the whole entrée including sauces, sides, and any other aspects of the dish.

First, break your menu down by body; light, medium, and heavy. Second, break your wine list down by body; light, medium, and heavy. Third, match column A to column B. That's it for the basics, sounds easy right? This is the point when you say, right!

Here are some examples:

White Wines and Food

Light Foods: most flaky white fish (i.e. flounder, cod), pastas with vinaigrettes, clams
Medium Foods: veal, shrimp, snapper, scallops, bass
Heavy Foods: salmon, chicken, lobster, duck

Light White: Chablis, Pinot Grigio, and Sauvignon Blanc
Medium White: Chardonnay, Pouilly-Fume, and again Sauvignon Blanc
Heavy White: Chardonnay again, Meursault, Chassagne-Montrachet

Red Wines and Food

Light Foods: salmon, tuna chicken, duck
Medium Foods: pork, veal
Heavy Foods: red meats, lamb

Light Red: Bardolino, Burgundys, and Chianti
Medium Red: Pinot Noir, Merlot, and Zinfandel
Heavy Red: Cabernet, Merlot again, Zinfandel again, Cabernet Sauvignon

Once again this list is not perfect, but more intended to give you a fighting chance not to look stupid in front of your guests. It's OK once you discover that perfect combination of wine and entrée, to keep it as a suggestion and use it over and over.