Here’s your chance to show off, or at least put your knowledge to the test. Invite some friends over, put on a wine-tasting party, or have a dinner with courses paired to the wines.

That might sound high-falutin’, but really, who doesn’t like good food and good wine? And why not take a little extra time to show off what you’ve slaved over in the kitchen to best effect? Or what you’ve ordered in from the Chinese takeout place uptown …

Inviting friends over for some grub and vino doesn’t have to be a big deal. God knows I’ve had plenty of spontaneous dinner parties which, caught off-guard, consisted of a bunch of cheese and wine drunk out of coffee cups, for that’s all I had. A little tacky, maybe, and not the best way to show off the wine, but fun—and that’s what counts most.

Still, you can prepare a little better than I did on those occasions. It takes just a few accoutrements—and every once in a while, it’s nice to do it up right. Invite some friends over, but plan what’s going to happen first.

Stocking the Pantry

My mom always had enough quick food in the house to be able to whip up dinner for 250 in the unlikely event that it would be needed without warning. I haven’t gotten that good, yet, but she did teach me the value of summer sausages, cheese, and crackers. And I’ve added my own list of wines.

With a little stash of good, everyday wines and the most basic of foods, there’s a party ready to happen whenever the chance occurs—even if it’s 11 P.M. after a movie and everyone’s a little hungry.

My basic batterie du vin tends to consist of …

• Two bottles cheap sparkling wine (Cava and Prosecco, mostly, simply because I’ve found nothing as consistently good for the $10 price).
• Two bottles light, crisp white wine (Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, white Bordeaux, Vinho Verde, Santorini, and the like).
• Two bottles juicy, ready-to-go red (Zinfandel, Shiraz, Valpolicella, southern Italian or French blends).
• One bottle sweet white wine (an affordable late-harvest something, or a Moscato d’Asti).
• One bottle sweet red wine (an LVB Port or Port-style Zinfandel, or a Maury when I’m feeling flush).

This way, no matter what the situation, there’s always something to pull out for guests. Somebody got some good news? A toast is in order, and the bubbly’s already in the fridge. It’s been a rough day? Bubbly can fix just about anything. Guests stopped in at dinner time? Have a glass of white while we fix another plate. One of these other whites or reds will do fine with the main. Out with friends at a show and there’s no place to go afterward? Invite them back for cheese or dessert: You’ve got some lovely sweet wines that have been waiting for an excuse to be opened.

No room in the fridge for all these tall bottles of wine? No problem. To chill a bottle quickly, put it into a container (or a plugged sink) filled partly with ice; fill it the rest of the way with cold water. This will chill the bottle far faster than straight ice or the freezer.

Spur-of-the-moment entertaining like a pro is as simple as having a few bottles tucked away—and something to pour them into, perhaps.

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Acidity

Acidity is the lemon squeeze of the wine world. It magnifies flavors, it brightens, it lightens, it almost makes the sun shine. Acidity cuts through fat like a knife. Think of that lemon squeeze over a fish fry; replace the lemon with a bright, crisp white wine, and the effect is very similar. It makes the heavy flavors feel livelier, and more importantly, it scrapes the film of fat off the taste buds so that they won’t get fatigued.

Acid will also magnify elements that don’t need magnifying—tannin, for instance. Pour a tannic red wine with an acid-rich sausage-and-sauerkraut dish, and every time the acid and wine combine the wine will seem extraordinarily tannic.

What works: High-acid wines with high-acid foods, or fat

What to avoid: High-acid wines with tannin

Oak

Wood has no equivalent in food, except for maybe those rare occasions when you’re having cedar-planked salmon. The flavors oak adds to wine range from near-nothing (in which case it’s no worry) to heavy vanilla and butterscotch notes. It also can add a little of its own tannin, a challenge covered previously under “Tannin.”

It’s the sweet vanilla, toast, and butterscotch flavors that are a concern. If the flavors are light, they might not interfere with the flavors in food, especially if the food itself is a little sweet or smoky, like, say, grilled tuna with mango relish.

If they are heavy, they’ll need a very rich dish to stand up to them, like barbecued brisket with sweet sauce for an oaky Shiraz.

Beware of salt when it comes to oaky wines, too, unless you want to taste even more of the oak and emphasize its tannins.

What works: Oaky wines with sweet or smoky dishes

What to avoid: Oaky wines and salty food, delicate flavors

As you can see, the reactions between food and wine can be dynamic. Knowing them can help you make sure the dynamic is a good one. Still, sometimes you’ll hit it and sometimes you won’t; not even sommeliers get it right every time. Worse things could happen. After all, it’s just dinner and a glass of wine.

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Sometimes it’s easier to think about what the wine will do for the dish, rather than what the dish needs in a wine. For wine, you have just four basic things to worry about: tannin, alcohol, acidity, and oak.

Tannin

You won’t find much tannin in food, but it’s an important element to keep in mind when it comes to wine. Tannin dries out the mouth. The feeling can be pleasant, a light grip that keeps the wine’s flavors lingering, or it can be like super-strength Velcro, leaving the tongue feeling dry and fuzzy. You can use tannin’s power to your advantage with food—and it can also do some damage.

Tannin loves protein; it literally binds to it. If you drink a tannic wine without any food, the tannin will have nothing to bind to but the protein in your saliva—and thus the unpleasant drying feeling.

However, give that wine a steak to sink its tannin into, and the tannin will leave your tongue alone. They’ll work almost like tenderizers on the steak, making it go down more easily.

Since tannic wines usually have lots of flavor, they typically have the oomph to cut through super-rich dishes like blue-cheese burgers or cheesy, meaty lasagna. Sic those tannins on a popcorn shrimp, though, and they’ll destroy the little guy by sheer overwhelming power. Think of tannin as a wine’s muscles, and be careful with what it flexes them on.

The shrimp’s briny notes won’t do it any favors, either: Just as salt enhances flavors, it accentuates tannin, too. If you don’t want a wine to taste any more tannic than it already is, go easy on the salty foods.

What works: Tannin with protein (think steak or cheese) and big flavors

What to avoid: Tannin with delicate foods and salt

Alcohol

Alcohol falls only on the wine side of the food-and-wine equation, but it’s important to know how food can affect it. Alcohol stokes a fire in a wine, one that’s usually kept under wraps by the wine’s own sweet, ripe fruit flavors. Toss a hot pepper into a dish, though, and when the wine and pepper meet, a bonfire might start on your tongue, so keep some bread handy or, better yet, avoid fiery foods and wines with high alcohol. Opt for something lightly sweet and low-alcohol instead, like a German Riesling or a white Zinfandel.

Alcohol can also ignite a fight with salt, which will bring out the heat of a wine in a white pepper-like burn. In most foods, there are mitigating elements that keep this from being a problem, but if the dish of the evening is Chinese salt-and-pepper squid, a 15 percent alcohol Viognier is not a good bet.

High-alcohol wines are usually high in flavor, too, and they’ll often have a slightly thicker texture. This is excellent when the match in mind is something as rich as salmon with a cream sauce, but delicate dishes can get lost under that thick blanket of flavor.

What works: High-alcohol wines with fatty, flavorful food

What to avoid: High-alcohol wines and salty food or spicy-hot dishes, delicate dishes

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Piquant Spice

Piquant spices, like chiles and pepper, add a bright, lively accent to foods. They also create a burning sensation on the tongue. To balance out spicy foods we often pair them with sweet notes: sweet and spicy Szechuan chicken, for instance, or sweet-hot barbecue sauce.

Wine can work with spice in the same way; use a sweeter wine to tamp down the fire. However, too much alcohol or too much spice, and the combination can start a bonfire in your mouth.

Tannin doesn’t do anything nice in the presence of spicy foods, either. Your tongue is already burning up; it needs something as quenching as a fire hose, not as parching as tannin’s drying effects.

What works: Piquant spice and sweetness

What to avoid: Piquant spice and alcohol, tannin

Sweetness

Sugar enhances flavors, magnifying them and making them feel softer and gentler (think of black versus sugared coffee). Sugar is tricky when it comes to matching wines, though—if the wine is too sweet, the combination can be cloying; if it’s too dry, the dessert will seem sweeter and the wine drier; neither item wins.

The answer? With desserts, look for wines that have plenty of acidity as well as sweetness; the acidity will help keep the overall sweetness in balance.

With savory dishes that have a sweet edge, like barbecued brisket with sweet sauce, that sweetness wants a wine that’s similarly balanced between sweet and savory— something soft and ripe, like an affordable California Zinfandel or Aussie Shiraz. Here, heavy tannin would only feel violent and miserly next to such sweetness.

What works: Sweet foods and sweet, high-acid wines or savory wines with ripe, soft flavors

What to avoid: Sweet foods and low acid or heavy tannin

Acidity

Acid is tough on wine; after all, its most frequent appearance in food is in salad, as vinegar, wine’s mortal enemy. Generally, it’s best to avoid highly acidic foods when you want to drink wine, but if you’re going to do it, and we all are, then fight acidity with acidity, and find a wine with the acidity to match.

Otherwise, the acidity in the dish will slay a soft wine, making it feel flabby in comparison.

What works: Acidity with acidity

What to avoid: Acidity without acidity

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