Rules of Thumb

1. If you are taking wine as a gift to a dinner party, don't wory about matching the wine to the food unless you have been requested to do so and have enough information about what is being served to make an informed choice.  Just bring a good wine.
2. When you're serving more than one wine at a meal, it's customary to serve lighter wines before full-bodied ones.  Dry wines should be served before sweet wines, and lower alcohol wines should be served before higher alcohol wines.
3. Balance flavor intensity.  Pair light-bodied wines with lighter food and fuller-bodied wines with heartier, more flavorful, richer and fattier dishes.
4. Consider how the food is prepared.  Delicately flavored foods pair best with delicate wines.  It's easier to pair wines with more flavorfully prepared food.  Pair wine with the sauce, seasoning or dominant flavor of the dish.
5. Match flavors.
6. Balance sweetness.  But, beware of pairing a wine with a food that is sweeter than the wine.
7. Consider pairing opposites.  Very hot or spicy foods often work best with sweeter wines.  Opposing flavors can play off each other, creating a new flavor sensation and cleansing the palate.
8. Match geographic location.  Regional foods and wines, having developed together over time, often have a natural affinity for each other.
9. Pair wine and cheese.  Red wines go well with mild to sharp cheese.  Pungent and intensely flavored cheese is better with a sweeter wine.  Goat cheeses pair well with dry white wine, while milder cheeses pair best with fruiter red wine.
10. Adjust food flavor to better pair with the wine.  Sweetness in a dish will increase the awareness of bitterness and astringincy in wine, making it appear drier, stronger and less fruity.  High amounts of acidity in food will decrease awareness of sourness in wine and make it taste richer and more mellow.