If you are taking wine as a gift to a dinner party, don't worry about matching the wine to the food unless you have been requested to do so and have enough information about what is being served to make an informed choice. Just bring a good wine. A grand dinner party with multiple courses of elaborately prepared dishes deserves a better wine than hamburgers on the grill with chips in a bag.

• Balance flavor intensity. Pair light-bodied wines with lighter food, and fuller-bodied wines with heartier, more flavorful, richer and fattier dishes.

• Think about how the food is prepared. Delicately flavored foods (poached or steamed) pair best with delicate wines. It's easier to pair wines with more flavorfully prepared food.  Pair the wine with the sauce, seasoning or dominant flavor of the dish.

• Match flavors. An earthy Pinot Noir goes well with mushroom soup and the grapefruit/citrus taste of Sauvignon Blanc goes with fish for the same reasons that lemon does.

• Balance sweetness. But, beware of pairing a wine with food that is sweeter than the wine, although I do like chocolate with Zinfandel or Cabernet Sauvignon. I also like chocolate with good dark beer.

• Consider pairing opposites. Very hot or spicy foods (Thai dishes, or hot curries) work best with sweet dessert wines. Opposing flavors can play off each other, creating new flavor sensations and cleansing the palate. Think about how milk puts out the fire in your belly.  Sweet wine does the same thing.

• Match by geographic location. French food, French wine. Italian food, Italian wine. Regional foods and wines, having developed together over time, often have a natural affinity for each other.  Take the guesswork out of food.

• Pair wine and cheese. In some European countries the best wine is reserved for the cheese course. Red wines go well with mild to sharp cheese. Pungent and intensely flavored cheese is better with a sweeter wine. Goat cheeses pair well with dry white wine, while milder cheeses pair best with fruitier red wine. Soft cheese like Camembert and Brie, if not over ripe, pair well with just about any red wine including Cabernet, Zinfandel and Red Burgundy.

• Adjust food flavor to better pair with the wine. Sweetness in a dish will increase the awareness of bitterness and astringency in wine, making it appear drier, stronger and less fruity. High amounts of acidity in food will decrease awareness of sourness in wine and making it taste richer and mellower — sweet wine will taste sweeter.

Bitter flavors in food increase the perception of bitter, tannic elements in wine. Sourness and salt in food suppress bitter taste in wine. Salt in food can tone down the bitterness and astringency of wine and may make sweet wines taste sweeter.