BETWEEN now and Christmas, you will probably be entertaining but, even if you're not, it makes sense to lay in a generous stock of bottles for impromptu callers who may end up settling in for dinner and staying half the night.
You need quantity, allied with reasonable quality, and interesting flavours like people at parties, wines with a bit of personality fare best. If you can match those flavours (even roughly) to the flavours of any food on offer, then even a simple dish and a humble wine will work party magic.
But before we get down to specifics, here are a few general points, starting with price. It's easy, when you're buying wine for a crowd, to take fright at the mere thought of how the multiplicatory effect will ravage your finances. The impulse, often, is to choose the cheapest bottle you imagine you can get away with. Don't!
Although we may not always get what we pay for at either end of the spectrum, it's unreasonable to expect really good wine at an extremely low price in this country. In a bottle selling in Irish shops at £4.50, for instance, the wine itself is worth only 36p, with the rest going towards tax, packaging, transport and trade margins. In a £7 bottle, the value of the wine jumps to £1.05 - almost three times as much. That's why it makes sense to choose in the £5.99-£7.99 range if you possibly can, rather than hope for miracles at a fiver or less. Better, I maintain, to economise a bit on the food than to poison your evening with unpalatable plonk. Spicy chickens' wings cost an awful lot less than fillet of beef.
The second point, if you're planning to serve food, is to avoid the temptation to colour-code your guests, red and white. Have you ever noticed how the normal sequence-of-drinking rules seem to break down once a gathering swells to more than bijou dinner party proportions Are you on red or white? the host will ask, brandishing a bottle of each colour at your elbow. How can you possibly tell, unless you know what you're about to eat? He knows you don't. He should boldly pour whichever wine has been chosen to suit the food. Play around, in advance, at pairing off foods and wines with the same zeal that you will doubtless bring to teaming up compatible guests.
The most important rule is to try to match the body of the wine, either white or red, with the weight of the dish it's intended to partner. Delicate food needs a delicate wine; more substantial food needs wine with a bit more substance. With popular eating trends continuing to move in ethnic directions
- Mexican, Thai, Indian and Mediterranean, as reflected in our party recipes - there's an increasing demand for assertive wines that can stand up to spice, fresh ginger, garlic, anchovies and a host of other pretty potent and distinctive' flavours. Various wines to suit this style of food are suggested below.
Other general rules think about acidity, since sharps zesty food tastes best accompanied by a wine with the same tongue-tingling characteristics (that's why lemon zest and lemon grass go so well with Sauvignon Blanc) think also about sweetness. Dessert wine may seem a nuisance or an affectation but it's worth bearing In mind that with a mouthful of sweet pud, many a white or red wine that seemed perfect earlier on, suddenly tastes horribly acid. John McKenna's Cranberry Tart would be glorious, on the other hand, with a Riesling Auslese or an Orange Muscat.
Still, with a large number of people, and perhaps a large number of dishes, it may simply not be practical to attempt to serve a whole series of different wines. The solution is to choose one white and one red - not at random but trying, with each, to hit on flavours that will complement the key, dishes.
If you're in doubt about what to choose, don't hesitate to pour out your troubles across the counter of your local wine shop. Wine merchants are trained to solve these dilemmas and often make inspired suggestions.
Last thoughts: Pace the pouring. And keep as much water on the table as wine.