Personal taste is certainly a factor, but pairing food and wine correctly can really make you enjoy your meal and the wine more than you could imagine. The enjoyment of the combined tastes is often much greater than if you had the wine and dish separately. Not convinced yet? Well, think about it this way, would you drink a smoothie with fish? or beer with weetbix? or even tomato sauce on your ice cream? probably not. The same applies to wine, although not obvious to many, some combinations of wine and food tastes are just not meant to be.

It's more than white with white and red with red

Once up on a time, there was one basic rule, pair white wine with white meat and pair red wine with red meat. But this was in the days where fewer wine varieties existed and much more basic dishes were being served on our table. This old rule does not take into consideration the complexity of today's multi-ethnic flavoured foods and the grand range of wines that are now available on our door step.

It's all about balance

A golden rule of pairing any wine with food is balance. Neither your wine or your food should overpower one another, instead they should compliment each other. A light-bodied wine is best paired with a light dish, where as a full-bodied wine can handle heartier, richer roasted and baked dishes. A similar rule applies with delicacy, a meal that has been prepared delicately such as anything poached or steamed is best paired with a delicate wine. Acidity is another balance to aim for, if you are planning on a creamy pasta dish, then an acidic Chianti will overpower the meal.

Match flavours

If you are reading a wine label that comments on the wine being earthy, then try to match the wine with earthy food such as mushrooms. If a wine label mentions citrus flavours, then pair this with fish, it will compliment the fish just like a slice of lemon. Another classic example is pork chops with apple sauce paired with a nice apple based Riesling.

Leave the humble for the humble and the great for the great

If you are taking wine to a dinner party, don't worry about matching the wine to the dish unless you have been informed of what's on the menu. Just take a good wine and matching the quality of wine to the quality of food is usually a safe decision. An elaborate dinner party deserves a better wine than what hamburgers on the bbq do.

Serve in order

Similar to a meal, where we enjoy a savoury meal before a sweet meal, a similar rule applies to wine. In general, consume dry wines prior to sweet wines, white wines before red wines, young red wines before older red wines and lower alcohol wines before higher alcohol wines.

Be sweeter than your dessert

A dessert wine should be as sweet as or sweeter than the dessert, if the dessert is sweeter, the wine may seem quite bland and flat.

Choose wine before food

It is often easier to choose a wine first, then based on the flavours and characteristics of the wine choose a complimentary dish.

In the end, it comes down to what you enjoy

With so much wine pairing advice available, the final decision often comes down to an individuals palate as not all of us have the 'average person's palate'. Many wine enthusiasts advise to balance the tastes between wines and dishes and for most individuals this is appropriate advice. But for some individuals, opposing flavours of food and wine can play off each other, creating new flavour sensations for the palate.

And sometimes it's best to just forget all of the rules and choose your favourite wine!