If you want to serve a great meal with wine that everyone will enjoy, why not plan your menu around your wine rather than planning your wine around your menu? If you have a favorite wine that you wish to serve to your family during a meal or if you find a great deal on a fabulous wine for a dinner party, you can your entire menu around such wines.



Often, when people have a wine they really like, they wait to open it until they cook a dish that is appropriate for it to accompany. However, you need not abide by such conventional thinking. If you have a fantastic wine today and you cannot wait to serve it, you can change tonight's menu and serve the wine when you want it.

Say you were out today and came across a great deal on a Penfold's RTW Shiraz that you could not pass by. Of course, you are going to be excited by such a find and you will want to share it with you spouse as soon as possible, even for dinner this very night. Unfortunately, you already have the sole defrosted with a plan to bake it with a white wine and lemon sauce.

Here are a few options if this happens and you wish to plan your meal around your newly procured Shiraz. First, you could check the sole as soon as you get home and if it still contains any ice crystals at all; you can wrap it up tightly and freeze it again. (Be sure that there are ice crystals in the fish if you want the fish to be any good next time you get it out.) Second, if you planned on previously unfrozen sole; you can certainly wrap it up tightly and freeze it so that you can cook it on a later date.

Thirdly, if you have not already had the fish defrosted for a couple of days, you can keep it in the refrigerator for one or two days before cooking it. Therefore, if you can commit yourself to cooking it tomorrow or the next day at the very latest, go ahead, refrigerate it, and cook your beefsteak to complement the Shiraz for tonight instead.

Additionally, even if you have no plans for hosting a dinner party, a great deal on a case of elegant wine might be the inspiration for you to do so. You can find many wine merchants of both domestic and international wines locally and online that offer the occasional deep discount on an elegant and sophisticated wine. If you come across such a find, pick up that case or two of wine and plan a meal around it. Say you find a marvelous McLaren Vale Chardonnay for a steal and it inspires you to host a dinner party.

If this happens, you could plan an entire seafood dinner party around your happy find. From grilled asparagus to steamed lobster and lobster bisque, you can serve your marvelous Chardonnay with fantastic results at your elegant dinner table.