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Wine for Special Occasions

Pairing wines with menus, weddings, festive dinners, and gifts: the dramaturgy of wine selection from apéritif to digestif.

What's inside

  1. 1.The Menu’s Dramaturgy: from delicate to powerful
  2. 2.Apéritif & Opening: why sparkling wine is rarely wrong
  3. 3.Wine Pairings for 3, 4, and 5 Courses
  4. 4.Roast Goose, Fondue & Holiday Classics
  5. 5.Gifting Wine: Budget Strategies
  6. 6.Planning Quantities: how many bottles for how many guests

Reading sample

Sample reading: A good wine pairing for a menu builds like a concert — if you start with the boldest wine, every course that follows will seem quieter. Rule from the guide: increase body by one level per course, never by two.

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About this content

Editorially created and reviewed by the wine-pairing.online sommelier team led by Isidoro Celentano (MYSYMP AG, Switzerland). It is based on the 12-variable methodology (acidity, tannin, body, sweetness, aromatics, texture) building on the work of Tim Hanni MW, Gordon Shepherd and Hervé This, and on a database of 30,000+ wines, 313 grape varieties and 1,900+ regional pairings.

Last updated: August 2026

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