World order of wine is up for grabs

An unspoken order exists in the wine world. It goes like this. Sparkle first. White second. Pink third. Red fourth. Sweet last.

There is a reason for this progression. It is all about going from lighter flavors to heavier flavors.

Seems simple enough. When you open a restaurant menu, foods are listed in order of appetizers first, followed by soups, salads, fish, poultry, meat and dessert. As you read through the selections, going from light to heavy helps you plan your meal. Most wine lists follow suit.

At wine tasting events, it is suggested that you start by tasting the white, then progress slowly to the reds so that your palate can adjust accordingly. Finishing with a rich dessert wine, it is virtually impossible to go back and try anything else, since the flavors will be too hard to discern after the sweetness of that port or sherry.

This order makes sense, and it is definitely functional. Its evolution eventually dictated the helpful rule of white wine with fish; red wine with meat. And in most cases, this works very nicely.

However, rules are meant to be broken. In the past few months, I have been witness to some "illegal" pairings in the food and wine world. These chaotic events have resulted in some incredible revelations that have caused me to question the world order.

Sparkling wine is wasted if you sip on it before dinner. When did Champagne become the wine of toasts? These wines were made specifically to go with food. The greatest thing about sparkling wines is their versatility at the table. A little bubbly can work wonders with omelets, lettuce wraps, French fries, butternut squash soup, Dover sole, chicken marsala, braised short ribs, steak au poivre, tarte tatin, and everything in between. Serve bubbly throughout your entire meal.

Stop traumatizing over color. It means nothing. Some people prefer whites. Some people prefer reds. One is not better than the other. Why not just offer one of each?

It is the pink wine that receives the most injustice at the table. Most blush wines are thought to be too sweet and are often left off the menu for that reason. What a shame. Dry rosé wines from the Mediterranean (Provence and Sicily, for example) are superb food wines. I would consider nothing other than these if serving baked ham, grilled salmon, chicken salad, asparagus vichyssoise or white pizza. Pink is happy to appear anywhere in the lineup. Just make sure to serve it. Well chilled.

Start off your meal with a red. Why not? Recently, I was at a lovely dinner party where we enjoyed a beautiful Italian red with our first course. Colle Ticchio Cesanese del Piglio ($16) is an easy-to-drink Italian red wine from the Lazio region, made from an ancient grape called cesanese. It was absolutely delicious served with a penne caponata. Then on to a white wine. A southern Italian white stepped in perfectly with a simple salad and some rustic bread. Statti Greco ($15) was as refreshing as the salad itself, and set the stage perfectly for the third wine, which was a lush Tuscan red. Castello di Meleto Rosso Toscano ($13) kicked up the flavor intensity to a level that matched the butter-soaked rosemary swordfish to a T.

Life is short. Eat dessert first. Of all people to break the rules, the French have one on all of us. Sauternes is a viscous, sweet dessert wine made from the late-harvested white grapes of Bordeaux. It is best served with foie gras at the beginning of the meal. Sacre bleu. No warrants have yet been issued by the wine police.