Versatile Red-Wine Picks

Sometimes you’ll need to find a wine that matches a range of dishes, say salmon, red meat, and a vegetarian entrée. You’ll want what we call a crossover wine – able to bridge both red and white meats.

Here are a few examples:

• Pinot Noir from Oregon, Canada, or New Zealand.
• Beaujolais from France, although not the nouveau versions unless the vintage is recent. Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape so a version from Ontario would work as well.
• Chianti from Italy, which is made from the Sangiovese grape (so other Sangiovese-based wines would work as well)
• Valpolicella from Italy – look for the most recent vintage available.

All these red wines have good fruit flavour and enough acidity to make a great match.

In a restaurant, another option is to forgo buying a bottle of wine to match all the different menu choices and let everyone go by-the-glass.