Chicken, and particularly roast chicken seems to go well with almost all grape varieties, so I am sorry to tell you we cannot make it easy by saying something like “only drink pinot with chicken’.

With chicken, we need to find a wine that has the right blend of sweetness, acidity, fruitiness and body to complement the meat to perfection.

Wines with roast chicken dishes

We have found a dry but rounded Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon mix rarely disappoints with Chicken Dishes. Recent winners include an Australian Westend Estate Sauvignon Blanc Semillon and a Hardys Stamp of Australia Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2002/03.

Wines with creamy chicken dishes

If you are having a creamy chicken dish, or something with a bit of ‘oomph’ to it (chicken curry or a stroganoff perhaps) you cannot go wrong with a voigner wine. The fantastic rich Viognier grape has a rugged fruity earthiness to it which goes fantastically with chicken dishes like this.

We have yet to find a poor viognier, so give this wine a go yourself.

Wines with tomato based chicken dishes

With a meal that has quite a bit of tomato with the chicken, you could try a French Medoc or a Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. Alternatively an Italian Chianti can work with strong tomato chicken and garlic flavours.

Wines with barbecue chicken dishes

When we barbecue chicken we all go a bit mad on the seasoning, smothering the poor bird in powerful marinades and sticky sauces. Most of these have ketchup, vinegar, or mustard and get their sweetness from honey, brown sugar and fruit. You need a strong wine to stand up against such an onslaught of robust flavours.

Go for pwerful fruity red wines with a high alcohol content.

California produces some great wines for the barbecue. Laurel Glen do one called simply ‘Reds’ that will knock your socks off. It is big, bold and delicious.

Rosemount Estate produce a Shiraz that is perfect for serving with chicken drumsticks fresh off the flames.

Other good grape varieties to look at include Grenache, Zinfandel, Chianti or Valpolicella from Italy and Syrah from France.

If you want a french theme to your barbecue then you really will be pleased if you try the reds of the Rhone Valley.

Cabernet, Merlot and Shiraz ae the three varieties that seem to work well with beef dishes.

In particular, look out for the Serret Cabernet, 2002 or go for any Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. If you can find a cabernet sauvignon merlot mix to go with a big cooked-on-the-bone beef dish then you will probably be very happy with the result.

At a barbecue you might want to try breaking the rules about which wine with beef dishes and consider opting for a good old gutsy riocha which will add to the party atmosphere and for some odd reason always makes beefburgers taste totally delicious.

Which wine with steak?

Our favourite wine to drink with steak is a well rounded claret. Nothing too old because once a claret gets to ’smokey’ it loses interest against the meat flavours and becomes rather bland. A young claret with a t-bone steak makes a great alternative to the traditional choice of beer.

In addition, if you find a Sangiovese for sale, I urge you to crack open the bottle next time you are having a really nice grilled filet or sirloin steak.

Of course we all think of beef as a strong robust dish and so strong wines will not cause problems. However, it is good to remember that certain beef dishes (carpaccio or steak tartare anyone?) have subtle flavours, and can be easily overpowered. In these situations we usually opt for a lighter cabernet sauvignon.

Think about choosing a syrah, cabernet sauvignon or even a chianti with the richer vegetarian dishes.

For a wine to go with lighter egg based vegetarian dishes you should find that white wines such as sauvignon blanc go well.

For mushroom based dishes we particularly like pinot noir.

With a really spicy dish a german gewurztraminer can be delighful.

If you want to be boring but safe, Port goes well with a cheese selection plate. It doesn’t matter what particular cheese, you will invariably find that the sweet intense flavour of Port works well with cheese.

However, if you want to experiment then here are a few cheese and wine pairing suggestions.

Shiraz and mature Cheddar work very nicely. The astringent notes in cheddar cheese are softened by the wine to create a harmony in the mouth that is surprising and welcome. Shiraz will also harmonise with mild cheddar, but some mild cheddars have so little flavour that the wine is the only thing you actually taste.

For crumbly white Cheshire cheese, I recommend a glass of riesling.

Ripe Camembert and a Chenin Blanc go very well together.

Really sharp cheeses (mature Cheddar or Parmigano) and baked Brie or Camembert go well with Champagne or Chardonnay.

With acidic Goat’s cheeses try a Sauvignon Blanc.

A fruity Cabernet Sauvignon or Chianti is really good with Gruyere cheese. This aged Swiss cheese has a really complex set of flavours, managing to be sweet, salty and nutty all at the same time. The fruit in the wines throws in a counterpoint that really excites the palette without dulling the cheese’s complexity.

Now we turn to the blue veined cheeses and while Danish Blue and the German Cambonzola work well with Cabernet Sauvignon, if you are eating English Stilton cheese (one of the few truly great cheeses) I advise you to stick resolutely to port wine and you will experience mouthful after mouthful of utter joy.

Oaks and tannins ruin a good curry. Stay away from anything aged in Oak barrels and stay away from Reds with high tannin content.

A bottle of Riesling, or Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay or Pinot Blanc will all work with almost any spicy dish.

Viognier goes particularly well with Thai food. The herbal notes of the voigner grape add complexity.

Daryl kindly emailed us to say that “A California Zin will work wonderfully with most asian fare… I find the fruit and alcohol work well with the sugar and spice.”

If you are looking to drink a red wine, then a low tannin Chianti or Merlot are fantastic with rich earthy dishes such as the wonderful curries of the Kashmir.

An additional benefit of wine with spicy food is that the alcohol washes the chilli into the toungue making your spicy food slightly more intense than before.

The biggest surprise came last night when my wife opened a bottle of champagne to try with a Goanese Curry. In a word, it was fantastic. This was a real revelation. The curry had no sweetness and the bottle of Moet et Chandon complemented it superbly. Do try any sparking wine with a curry.

There is a new Portuguese rose called Pink Elephant from Estremadura that is being marketed as having been specifically designed to match spicy foods. It is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon and offers an easy relationships between sweetness and the sharpness needed to cut against a curry. Available for around a fiver from supermarkets (in the UK) .

If you are only able to buy North American wine, then avoid anything too sweet, even if you usually like a sweeter wine.

A good bordeaux is actually my favorite option, but speak to the shop owner to ensure it isn’t oaky (now that is why you should buy your wines somewhere other than the local supermarket).

The rest of the world seems to favor a spanish Rioja with lamb.

A good rioja can work well if the dish is particularly robust or has Mediterranean notes, for example, a Moroccan lamb tajine. If for some reason you cannot find a Rioja on the day, a Tempranillo will do just as well.

Saving my special recoomendation till the end I would say you should go get a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from 2003. The vintage year produced amazing Cabernet Sauvignon and since few lamb dishes can get overwhelmed, a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon on the table is going to make everybody happy. By following your taste buds I am sure you will find the wine with lamb dishes that suits you best.