Food and wine pairings often seem so mysterious to those who weren’t raised in families saturated with wine culture. Maybe it has something to do with the gate-keeping of sommeliers, the wine servers at restaurants known for picking out the perfect wine for your meal. Or maybe it rises from a fear of failure, of making a “mistake” or wasting your hard-earned cash on a bottle that clashes with your dish. 

Whatever the reason, it’s time to remove the shroud of mystery, and offer a few simple tools to help you make a wine choice you can feel confident in.

The first trick is an adage: If it grows together, it goes together. Until recently, wine was always considered food. Fermenting grapes was a way to keep them from spoiling, and alcohol provided precious calories. Furthermore, most wine was consumed within its place of origin, whether a village or a region, and was not exported or traded. This meant that grape varieties and wine styles evolved to pair with hyper-local food customs.

One of the most obvious examples of this is Italian wines and food. Food in the north is more meat-centric, with lots of butter and cream employed. The red wines tend to be light in body with high acidity and tannin, to cut through the rich fare. In the south, where tomatoes are king, the wines are also very high in acidity to match the similarly high acid in tomatoes. Many of the coastal regions produce red wines light enough to serve with fish, while in Tuscany, Sangiovese and the famous Bistecca alla Fiorentina are a match made in heaven.

What about pairing cuisines from places that don’t revolve around wine? The acid, tannin, alcohol, and sugar levels of wine make up its structure and often go a lot further in successful pairings than flavors. A little memorization of the structure of popular wine styles can go a long way in making some satisfying matches and keeping you from having to guess what the wine actually tastes like. 

As mentioned above, acid is key: It’s the element that makes your mouth water. High-acid foods will make low-acid wines taste flat and flabby. So when thinking about dishes with tomato, lemon, or vinegar highlights, you will want to try and match them. Acid also cuts through fatty dishes like pork belly, coconut milk curries, and those that are heavy on the dairy, making them feel less dense and palate-coating. 

Usually cool climates or high elevation sites equal higher acid wines, though most Italians, both whites and reds, are notably acidic. Other regions to look for are Chablis, the Loire Valley, Catalonia and Galicia in Spain, and coastal California. Practically all German wines are an easy place to start. 

Tannins are polyphenols found in the skins of grapes. Red and orange wines (white wines made in contact with their skins) are where you’d find them. They bind to the protein in your saliva to wick it away, leaving you with a drying, sometimes astringent sensation on your tongue, gums, and the sides of your mouth. The binding property also applies to other types of protein, like heavy meat dishes, making the wine less drying on your palate. It’s another example of Italian wine and food being one and the same, they taste and feel better together.

Look for wines made of Cabernet Sauvignon, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese, Tannat, cool-climate Syrah, Xinomavro from Greece, or Touriga Nacional from Portugal. Another thing to consider with tannins is that they feel much harsher with spicy foods and can destroy a well-intended pairing.

Alcohol is a tricky thing. High-alcohol wines are usually from warmer climates and are often lower in acidity, Barolo from Piedmont being a notable exception of both high acid and often high alcohol. Alcohol is denser than water and longer fermentations equal more glycol, a byproduct. This means they have a fuller body and can feel heavy or mouth-coating, making them very difficult to pair well with most food. A notable exception is a dish like cassoulet and Grenache-based wines from southern Rhone. 

Low-alcohol wines, on the other hand, can feel light and refreshing or juicy. Really light reds can go great with fish; medium-bodied reds tend to be all-purpose and can span the gamut from veggies to chicken or pork dishes. 

Another note with alcohol: It makes spicy food taste much hotter than it is and the alcohol really burns going down, which is why it’s often hard to find reds to pair with spicy dishes like Indian or Szechuan. If you really want red and spice, look for low-alcohol, low-tannin wines like Beaujolais, Piqueño from Chile, Frappato from Sicily, or California Pinot Noir.

Sugar: Most people fear the stuff, but it’s actually one of the food-friendliest aspects in a wine. A touch of sugar can help temper spice, making a dish taste milder and canceling out the sweetness in the wine itself. It can also make savory dishes taste more complex and simple dishes shine. If you are pairing sweet wine with dessert, make sure your wine is sweeter than your dish. Otherwise, the wine will taste bitter and unpleasant.

Another non-structural thing to consider is complexity. Simple dishes pair best with simple wines, while complex dishes, like many from India or Thailand, can often handle really layered wines. A little-known exceptional wine pairing with spicy, complex Asian food, or even just hot wings, are the super-complex, old fortified wines of Vin Jaune, Amontillado Sherry, or 10-year-old-plus Madeira. They break all the above rules, containing high alcohol and low acid in the case of the Sherry and no sugar, except for Madeira, but their complexity manages to overcome those elements and they go toe-to-toe with the most intense and/or spicy dishes.

Often the most complex wines are those with the most age, which means they can be very delicate, like aged Claret or old Burgundy. Wines that have hit their peak maturation are usually best served against simple cuisine: a roast chicken, perhaps.

Finally, the most dynamic tools in your arsenal of wine and food pairings: Champagne and Riesling. There are few dishes that a great bottle of either can’t find symbiosis with. Riesling is often the only wine that goes with hard-to-pair foods like eggs, asparagus, and artichoke. Champagne is not just for celebrations, unless, like me, you want to celebrate every meal in its own right. It’s a classic with oysters and caviar, but you will also find transcendence in fried chicken, french fries, wagyu beef, and even a cheeseburger. 

Regardless of your wine-and-food-pairing experience, I encourage you to avoid fretting over perfection and instead embrace experimentation. One of my most eye-opening pairings was a happy accident: Blaufänkisch from Austria and Peking Duck. I’ve returned to it again and again. There are so many thrilling combinations in food and wine, and while all of them might not be winners, figuring out new ones can make both your eating and drinking experiences more fulfilling.