The Absolute Best Wine To Order When Everyone's Eating Different Dishes

Choosing wine for a group at a restaurant can quickly escalate to a high-stakes negotiation of inscrutable tasting notes and deal-breaking shades. Even parties merely quibbling between the two big hues — red and white — will struggle to satisfy everyone at the table. The steak lover may insist on a Bordeaux; the pescatarian, a pinot gris. I've seen it more than most. Before I became a professional journalist, I was a bartender at a darling NYC spot called Cornelia Street Cafe. And with those pursuits, I learned the best wine you can order for disparate desires is a chilled red.

To avoid throwing in the towel and letting everyone order by the glass, a chilled red wine is your best bet because it shares enough qualities with its deep peers as it does with a gossamer white. It's also more of a middle ground than the rosé or blush wines that plenty of folks erroneously believe are the product of a color mashup. For one, it is, obviously, cold, and even that superficial element can go a long way. On top of that, many of the reds that are most appropriate for refrigeration are also compositionally closer to whites, appeasing the T-bone devotees and fish fanatics alike. So, go ahead and order a chilled red and be the hero of the group chat (which is exactly what I would do), or double-check a couple of factors on site to make sure the evening's premier compromise is achieving its potential.

Unless you're out with a bunch of sommeliers, odds are your pals probably have a pretty basic knowledge of wine. For most people, that means white wine is served chilled and red wine at room temperature. This association is strong, so use it to your advantage; a chilled red should tick some boxes and go down easier for even your most white-wine-committed friends. A bit of chill can even improve the taste of some cheaper wines, which you might be getting when taking a restaurant's markup into account.

On top of that, the red wines that are best chilled tend to be more similar to white wines than other reds; they are typically lighter varieties with less tannins (the compounds that give red wines their hearty structure and bitterness). No matter how it's served, a full-bodied, tannin-heavy wine like a Nebbiolo probably won't appeal to the white wine drinkers in your party, but an airier Lambrusco, a sparkling red wine usually served chilled, will have a finish more like a white wine, making it a solid option for the mixed tastes of your party. 

But this is just one example; as you peruse the wine list, you can always ask for more guidance. Ultimately, your server is just as likely to recommend a chilled red for steak as they are for fish. Should you really want to stir the pot, whether it's filled with bouillabaisse or beef bourguignon, mention the wonderful article you read that empowered you to stop basing your wine pairings on protein in your main once and for all.