Food & Menu Matching
The choice of wine to serve at a wedding reception can range from an inexpensive high-quality label from California to the best of Bordeaux, but its not the price that matters, its the food.
A great meal is a combination of delicious food and well chosen wine. choose the wrong wine – one that doesn’t suit the food - and your reception could be a big disappointment. successful pairing is all about matching weight and flavour, Light wines go with light foods and heavier wines with heavier foods.
 A delicate fish simply cooked tastes perfect with a crisp , light white wine, whereas a peppered steak needs a powerful australian shiraz. Wines from a particular region often go really well with dishes from that region. For example light italian red wines taste perfect with most pasta dishes.
Aperitifs
Some wines make better appetite-whetters than others. Try...champagne, fino sherry, riesling, alsace pinot blanc or sauvignon blanc.
Fizz
There’s nothing like a glass of bubbly to raise spirits at the start of a wedding celebration. Serve it with tasty canapés or other indulgent delights such as caviar, oysters and smoked salmon and you’ll ensure that your reception gets off to a stylish start.
Soup
It’s not considered appropriate to serve wine with soup (how can one liquid accompaniment another?) but if you would like to have a wine choose a light, dry white or if the soup is dominated by one particular ingredient, match your wine to that.
Salads
Salads go well with zesty white wines, rose and light, fruity reds. for a goats cheese salad try a sauvignon blanc, with caesar salad order a californian chardonnay with a warm duck salad serve a soft fruity red such as a beaujolais or light pinot noir.
Fish
‘White wine with fish, red wine with meat’ is a rule often repeated, but it’s not exclusive, so keep an open mind. shellfish suits crisp, citrussy whites, although those dishes with a sweet, rich flesh like crab taste great with more full-bodied wines.
Chicken
Chicken is great with white wine but can adapt to suit a huge variety. always think about the main flavours in the recipe you’ve chosen and try to pick a wine to suit.
Duck, goose & turkey
These birds like top-notch red wine with a soft cushion of sweet, concentrated fruit. Think pinot noir from burgundy or new zealand, german or alsace riesling or australian semillon.
Pork
In true meat tradition pork is most often served with red wine, except when it is cooked with fruits, in which case it would be happier partnered with a white. Good choices are a new world pinot noir, rhone reds, australian semillon, a lightly oaked chardonnay or merlot.
Lamb
Lamb is wonderful served with serious red wine such as
a quality bordeaux and rioja gran reserva.
Beef
Unless you’re cooking with spice, soft and fruity red wines are best replaced with firm dry reds with a bit of tannin. maybe a spanish gem from ribera de duero or priorato, a good chateauneauf-du- pape or an australian barossa.
Crowd pleasers
When you’re ordering wine for a large number of wedding guests it’s important that you choose bottles that will blend in easily with a wide array of tastes.
For more information on choosing wine read ‘food & wine matching made simple’, £8.99, ryland, peters & small.
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Reception 
Meeting up with the lovely Kirstie McMurray from Cool FM, our compare for The Wedding Journal Reader Awards on Monday!
