There are no hard and fast rules about which wine should be drunk with which food, but there are some tried and tested guidelines that those who serve with a meal wine can follow when deciding which bottle will best complement which dish. Sweet sherry is best enjoyed with dessert or fruit at the end of the meal. As a general rule, white wine is usually served with the more delicate dishes, such as fish, and heavy red wines with heavier foods such as beef, venison and composite dishes. Drier wines are drunk before the sweeter ones and white before red when there is more than one kind of wine served with the meal. Rose wine is halfway between white and red and can be regarded as a multi-purpose wine.
Sweet wine is drunk with dessert or fruit.
Sparkling wine can be enjoyed at any stage of the meal - apart from traditionally being served on festive occasions. It goes especially well with dessert, however. There are recommendations about the temperature for serving wine. Rose and white wines are cooled, but never served icy cold. Serving a wine too cold hides much of its taste.