When You Don't Recognize Anything on the Wine List

You sit down to dinner, you look at the wine list, and you don't recognize a thing. This could happen anywhere, but it's most likely to happen at ethnic restaurants where the wine matches the food. But, in any case, you don't recognize a thing. What do you do?

First, consider what you are eating. If there is meat in the dish(es), is it white meat or dark meat? While it's not a requirement, white meat tends to pair with white wine and dark meat with red wine. While pork is often referred to as the other white meat, I prefer red wine with it personally. And, I can go either way with darker meat fish, but those are personal preferences.

But, after that, there is a key to picking something that will work. If you have a great server, perhaps they can give you some great suggestions. But, suppose they can't. 

This is where you need to know something about wines generally. Or make use of some sort of search engine. What you need to look for to go with food generally without knowing much about the wine is acidity. Good acidity. Lots of acidity. 

How do you know? There is no easy answer. But, here are your choices. Knowing whether various grapes are acidic in nature is ideal. You don't have to rely on anything else. Choice number two is ask your server. If they don't know, maybe another server does. And, choice number theee is using an app or a search engine. 

Tha't it. And, since I have had a busy day, that's really it.