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A Beginners Guide To Choosing Wines For A Dinner Party

If you're not someone who is a big wine drinker, but you are throwing a dinner party, then you are going to have to get some wine and it's helpful to know something about the different styles. Even though you don't drink wine, your guests probably will, so it's important to have it on hand. The following list will give you a few different styles of wine to get. It's important to have a variety because one guest might only want to drink a heavy bodied red, so having a fridge full of chardonnay won't suffice  

Dark Red: Cabernet Sauvignon

When it comes to heavy bodied, dark red wines, a surefire classic is a Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a perfect wine if you are serving meat for dinner, but it's also great for those people who just love intense reds. If you want a really fruit forward, alcohol heavy, intense Cabernet, choose one from a warm region such as Napa Valley, or Australia. The Cabernet's out of cool climates such as Chile, Washington State, and northern Italy all have a more subtle flavor.

Medium Body Red: Pinot Noir

Not everyone wants a dark, heavy red wine with lots of tannin's and a strong alcohol content. For those people, a great choice would be a Pinot Noir. Look towards cooler climate vineyards, such as Northern California, and Oregon. There are also some nice ones from New Zealand.

Dry White: Chardonnay

Chardonnay is a standard white wine. It's dry, and can either be full bodied with oak notes, or "un-oaked". The oakieness has to do with the ageing process (if the wine was stored in oak caskets). You can find excellent Chardonnay from the California(which is home to many excellent vineyards), South Africa, or Argentina. This wine should be served chilled, so make sure to have it in your fridge the day before the party. There are all sorts of tricks to "speed up" the chill time, but it's safest to let it sit in the fridge overnight instead of risk ruining the wine by sticking it in your freezer.

Light White: Sauvignon Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc is a lighter style white wine when compared to Chardonnay. It's more fruity, with less alcohol. You can find these wines from Southern Australia, New Zealand, and the Loire Valley in France. This wine should also be served cold, in fact the flavors (because it's very fruity and mildly sweet) can be too sweet if the wine is not chilled extremely well. It needs to be incredibly cold to exhibit it's refreshing nature.

Having wine on hand, like Caymus wine, can help complete your event.

About Me

sharing my love of food

Some of my best memories from my childhood are from the many times I spent working in the kitchen with my grandmother and my mother. I learned to love cooking at a very young age and that love has helped shape my adult life to what it is today. I love cooking, creating and eating all sorts of foods and love sharing these things with as many people as I can. This blog is filled with tips, ideas and tricks that can help you make the time you spend in your kitchen preparing meals, baked goods and treats for those that you love much more enjoyable for you and the people you are serving the food to.

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