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Choosing a good wine can be a nightmare, especially when you’re trying to impress someone. You’re having a dinner party – you’ve planned the menu thoroughly, dusted off your best crockery and wine glasses, and got everything prepared – except for the wine selection. There’s just so much to consider, and it always seems like everyone else knows so much more than you do about it. You stand there for what seems like forever looking at the endless shelves of different bottles, and the more you wonder about it the harder it gets. That’s why we’ve put together a few tips of what to watch out for and how to choose the perfect wine to compliment your meal.

Firstly and most importantly, you should match the wine to the meal you will be eating. Everyone has different opinions of which wine will taste good with different foods, but there are a few basic rules that you can follow if you’re really not sure. The easiest way is to match the colour of the wine to the food. So if you’re eating red meat choose a dark red Cabernet or Syrah. For lamb or pork dishes a medium bodied red like a Merlot will be less heavy whilst still giving a rich flavour. Chicken and fish dishes are often overpowered by reds so it’s best to go for a crisp white instead, perhaps a Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc. If it’s a special occasion or celebration, you might be better off with a sparkling wine, served in fancy Champagne flutes.

Once you’ve worked out what kind of wine you are looking for, look at where it was made. Wines from different regions are hugely different in quality, so it pays to do a bit of research into the best regions. If you’re not sure, France is always a good bet and has been producing good quality wines for hundreds of years. Italy is another good choice, and Chilean wines are very popular at the moment too, particularly the reds.

Another thingit’s a good idea to check is the vintage of the wine, or the year it was bottled. A true wine buff will know which were the good years for each region, and will buy only vintages which they know came from a particularly good crop. For the rest of us non-experts, it can seem like a lot of guesswork, but if you know a few of the basics you’ll at least be on the right track. That all wines taste better the older they are is a common misconception. It’s true that most red wines do improve with a little aging, but most wineries won’t distribute these reds for a couple of years after bottling to give them time to mature. This means by the time they appear on the shelves they are ready to drink and will taste good. Most white and sparkling wines don’t need aging, and taste good if drunk straight away.