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Wine List Survival is the art and ability to know what wines to order in a restaurant and to order them with the style and flourish of an expert. Learning a few simple steps will make your choices easier, impress your friends and add enjoyment to your dining experience.
  
 Ordering wine is a process. The outcome should be that this process enhances your dining experience. The most important consideration is balance or mix of flavors. This is very simple. Powerful flavors in food call for more powerful flavors in wine. Also lighter more subtle flavored foods benefit from matching with lighter more subtle flavored wines. There are NO hard and fast rules for this process. There used to be an adage "red wine with meat, white wine with fish". That is perhaps an oversimplification but generally a good guide. Basically lighter wines go better with lighter flavored foods and richer more full flavored foods benefit from being matched with more full bodied wines.

There are 2 basic types of wine (what we call "table wine" as opposed to sparkling wine or dessert (sweet) wine) - red and white. These can be further divided into 2 types, full flavored and lighter wines. Or perhaps a better division is "Old World and New World". Old World wines are more "earthy tasting" and come from Europe. New World wines are more "fruit forward" and come from North America, South America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc.

Vintage Veracity Champagne Basics:
Let's talk about Champagne for a minute. Here are a few simple things to help you order Champagne.

1. Champagne goes with everything. If you want to keep it simple and not worry about "wine and food matching" just order Champagne and everyone should be happy.

2. Champagne is only produced in a region of France north of Paris. Any other bubbly should be called "sparkling wine" regardless of where it is made.

3. Forget the year. Most Champagne is "non-vintage". Vintage dated Champagne is only produced in very good years so any year is good and a vintage dated Champagne is usually more expensive than the non-vintage variety.

4. Forget Dom Perignon. This Champagne is ok but over hyped and overpriced. You will immediately be branded "a poseur" if you order it. Instead try Veuve Cliquot (Kleeko) Yellow Label, Taittinger or Pommery. One of the most expensive Champagnes is Salon Le Mesnil if you want to go all out.

5. If you want to know about grapes in Champagne: Champagne is produced from only 3 grapes, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. A Champagne labeled "Blanc des Blancs" is produced from 100% Chardonnay. Rose Champagne is made from Pinot Noir, costs more and is quite rare.

6. Most Champagne is dry or in French "Brut". This goes best with most foods. There are sweet Champagnes to go with desert (Demi-Sec) but these are rarely seen on a wine list. Sometime you will see a Champagne labeled "Extra Dry" but be aware this is not as dry as "Brut".