whites. If the fish is grilled, a fruity red wine is best, though your bottle of tasty, toasty Chardonnay can work too.

Chicken and other fowl handle wines of similar weight, that is, if the chicken is skinless and poached, a fairly light white is great. If the chicken has its skin on with other intensely flavored notes (garlic, wine reduction) medium-bodied, whites or fruity reds are excellent.

Tannin is the component in red wine that gives a dusty, even bitter sensation. Tannin’s roughness is softened by fat, so the amount of fat in a particular dish helps determine which wine will handle the dish best. Fat can come from many sources: certainly beef is famously rich in fat, but so is lamb when it’s served on the bone and not cut from the loin. Cheese and cheese sauces are high in milk fat, while mushrooms add a distinctive fat-rich flavor, though there is no fat in the fungi.

Pork (The other white meat) is low in fat and lighter reds and even many whites are delightful. Game can be lean or high in fat: combine with bigger, more tannic wines if the cut is on the bone. Beef is invariably in need of big, intense reds fashioned from Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Nebbiolo or Brunello.

Dessert and wine are tricky, but the best rule is to be certain the wine is always sweeter than the dessert.

More important than any of these ideas is that you drink what you like when you like it. Because it really is more important, I’ll say it again; drink what you like when you like it.

Why do people smell the cork?
Because they’ve been trained to by a handful of snooty wine stewards who haven’t the faintest idea themselves why anyone does it. Something about checking the wine to see if it’s bad,