The options are as limitless as the various kinds of food and the best red wine you can find. But through this universe of digestive delights a few pairings shine like supernovas of gastronomy.

1. www.gourmetrecipe.com
It is common knowledge that wine and food go together like peas and carrots, bad pun intended. There are millions of combinations that match
perfectly the style, flavors and weight of both the libation and sustenance. There are even combinations that couldn’t possibly be more opposite
yet couldn’t possibly work better together. The options are as limitless as the various kinds of food and the best red wine you can find. But through
this universe of digestive delights a few pairings shine like supernovas of gastronomy. These are the classics. The pairings that achieve the heights
of marriage between food and wine. These are the perfect examples of the symbiotic relationship between the joys of eating and the dreams of
drinking.
Wine Tasting Component I: Look
The first step you have to undertake in wine tasting is visual.
1. Fill up the glass up to 1/3 of its volume; never fill it more than half;
2. Hold the glass by the stem. Initially you may find this too pretentious but there are good reasons for it:
а) by doing it this way you can actually observe the wine in it;
b) this will keep your fingerprints off the bowl;
в) the heat from your palm will not change the temperature of the wine.
There's a good saying by one of the greatest French wine lovers, Emil Painot: Offer someone a glass of wine and you can immediately tell whether
he/she is a connoisseur by the way they hold the glass." Even though you may not think of yourself as a connoisseur, you could still learn how to
hold the wine glass.
3. Focus on the color intensity and the transparency of the liquid.
a) the color of the wine, and more specifically its nuances, are best observed on a white background.
b) the wine's intensity is best judged by holding the glass without slanting it and looking at the liquid from above;
4. Next comes the swirling of the glass. This can also seem too pretentious or even dangerous if you have a full glass or a white top. But this
movement is important since it prepares you for the next step in wine tasting - the Taste. The easiest way to swirl the glass is to place it on a table
or other even surface, and to swirl your hand while holding the glass by the stem. Swirl hard and have the wine almost touch the rim of the glass.
Then stop. The wine leaves tiny traces with irregular shapes on the inside of the glass. Some "experts" then read them with as much zeal as coffee-
tellers. The truth is however, that they are just an indicator for the quality of the wine - the more alcohol a wine has, the more wine traces it forms.