Wine at home. Storing, serving, pairing and choosing with confidence.

Food and wine pairing basics

Food changes how a wine tastes, and the best way to form your own opinions is at the table. Working through a spread of dishes, Fredrik explains his thinking. Delicate veal suits a light Pinot Noir, but with tuna sauce and salty capers in a vitello tonnato, a fresh white such as Roero Arneis is better. Acidic goat cheese calls for an equally high-acid wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc or Sancerre, because matching acidity lowers its perception. Mushrooms and truffle love red wines, especially with a little age, such as Langhe Nebbiolo.

For desserts, Fredrik is wary of sparkling wine, whose acidity can turn sharp, and prefers a sweet wine such as Beerenauslese, which should always be sweeter than the dish. With many dishes on the table at once, as is common in Asia, choose versatile wines: off-dry Riesling, a Kabinett or Spätlese with spicy food, or a fruity Pinot Noir. Sarah warns that high oak, tannin and alcohol can clash with strong sauces.

How to order from a wine list

Without a sommelier, start with the theme of the restaurant: what grows together, goes together, so an Italian restaurant's Italian list or a local house wine is often the best bet. With a sommelier, be open and specific. Saying you want "a dry white" gives little to work with, while naming a style you love, your budget and your food allows real suggestions.

Sarah and Fredrik act out a bad and a good conversation with a sommelier, and the second one ends with a clever regional match. Watch how the role-play unfolds.

How to store wine at home

Heat is wine's greatest enemy. Keep bottles in the darkest, coolest place you have, ideally around 12°C, though anywhere from 10 to 16°C is fine as long as it is stable, because rapid swings can cause off flavors. A household fridge works for a couple of months at most. Aim for humidity between 50 and 75% so corks do not dry out, and keep bottles away from sunlight and from vibrations such as washing machines or speakers.

Store cork-sealed bottles on their sides so the cork stays moist; screw caps can stand, but lying down saves space. For most people, especially in apartments, a wine refrigerator at 10 to 15°C is the simplest solution. And, as Fredrik shows in a chaotic cellar, organize your bottles so wines for aging are kept apart from those to drink now.

The experiment: serving temperature

The same red wine is served at around 20°C, roughly European room temperature, at about 10°C and somewhere in between. The hosts explain how aroma molecules release at different temperatures, and why a wine that is too warm tastes alcoholic and jammy while one that is too cold seems muted. Most of us serve reds too warm and whites too cold. Fredrik's tip: keep reds in the fridge and take them out about 45 minutes before serving. Find out which temperature wins.

Wine ratings and a final blind tasting

Numerical wine scores are a fairly recent idea, popularized in the 1980s by Robert Parker with his 100-point scale. Today critics and publications such as James Suckling, Jancis Robinson, Decanter and Falstaff all rate wines. Scores are subjective and some critics are more generous than others, so learn whose palate matches yours. Fredrik, as a sommelier, prefers producer profiles and descriptions; Sarah, a reviewer and judge, sees value in helping consumers navigate a sea of choice.

To test it, each host brings a bottle from home and rates the other's wine blind. See how the scores compare, and why a number can feel harsher than a description. It is a fitting finale to a course that helps you prepare for WSET Level 3, complete with an unmasked mystery chef and a celebratory sabrage.