Simple wines, simple meals

CHOOSING wines for dinner is both a sensual and intellectual exercise. It also gives me an excuse to go down to the cellar and survey the wines. That is my twice or thrice weekly exercise! Questions to be answered which determine choice of wine: Lunch or dinner? Casual or formal? Where are we eating? Guest list? Any special occasion - birthday; anniversary?

Starting with the most frequent occasion, an informal meal, and a casual dinner with good friends. Last evening it was dinner for a very old friend and her daughter, just the four of us. Our guests drink wines with their meals but are not collectors.

It was a matter of choosing more commonly seen wines, the type you knew they would have experienced more often. This thus meant Burgundy for white and Bordeaux for red. The food was more Western in character so it was not difficult to find wines to match. First course was fish with stuffed zucchini flower, followed by pasta and finally beef.