Typically, in the United States at least, a dinner entree contains a protein, two vegetables, and a starch, not to mention accompanying sauces and seasonings. Finding a wine to match every single item on that one dish is an Olympic feat, probably truly impossible most of the time. What to do? Break it down.

Ask yourself, is it a rich dish? A lean dish? Acidic? Sweet? What you’re looking to describe is the overall feel of the dish, not individual flavors. That would drive you nuts.

Besides, what really matters in pairing wine and food is how a few dynamic elements of flavor balance. Pay attention to …

• Fat (richness).
• Salt (like chips or cured ham).
• Piquant spice (like chiles).
• Acid (like vinegar, lemons).
• Sweetness (like fruit salsas, brown sugar glazes).

Wine shares most these elements with food, only it adds …

• Tannin: feels like Velcro, both in how it sticks a wine’s flavors to the tongue and how it leaves the tongue feeling.
• Alcohol: can add richness to texture, or, in excess, a warm burn like that of white pepper.
• Oak: adds a bit of tannin, some sweetness, and sometimes flavors of straight wood.

The most important elements to pay attention to in pairing wine and food are the acidity, tannin, alcohol, and any overt wood flavors in the wine.

Each one of these elements plays a dynamic role in flavor—it enhances, magnifies, or suppresses it—and in how food and wine feel in the mouth—smooth, rough, hot, or sticky. These are all feelings that can be unpleasant in excess (too much salt, for instance, or too much drying tannin). They are also elements that can clash or work to each other’s strengths. Knowing a little bit about how they combine will help you to make choices that work more often than not.