A spoonful of sugar makes more than the medicine go down; it makes everything taste better. But sweetness can be a bugaboo to tasty wine pairings. When a dish is sweet — as here with the peach chutney or the milk of the cheese — but the wine is dry, in the way most wines are, then it's the wine that will taste like medicine. The best partners to sweetness in a food are a bit of sweetness in the wine or a marked fruitiness (as is the case with all three wines this week) wrapped tightly with acidity. [...]

Perhaps the ultimate match of food with beverage is wine and cheese. They’re nearly twins. Both date to ancient times. Both are fermented. Both are governed, all over the world, by appellation and quality standards. And, most important, each reflects the place where it is born, its terroir. One translates its terroir via a vine. The udder, by an udder. Matching cheese with wine is the same as matching any food with wine. Matches work – or don’t – because of what’s in the wine and in the cheese, things such as acidity or fat. Region Many people follow the [...]

Why do so many cultures dine on fish for dinner on New Year’s Eve? Some say because fish prefigure prosperity (their scales resemble coins and they travel in multitudes called schools); also that they swim only in a forward direction. Scallops and caviar aren’t fish like that, although one is countless and the other resembles a stack of coins. So, at this year’s end, go for the gold with this elegant preparation. Any number of dry, off-dry or sparkling white wines, crisp with acidity and refreshing in character, would do nicely with this preparation’s elements of fat, salt and acidity. [...]

Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve dinners tend to be deluxe, even sumptuous affairs. This crab-and-pasta preparation fits the bill. It would seem fitting to pair such fare with wines equally rich and opulent. But nuanced, aged reds or buttery, oaky whites also overplay and tire the palate. Sometimes simple and clean is better, as a yin to the (in this case) crab’s yang. And the unique white from the south of France is the perfect, humble “background” wine to let the dish shine. Garlicky crab with pasta Add 2 pounds king crab legs to a stockpot of salted boiling [...]