The perfect pairing can be transformative: The wine makes the food taste better, the food makes the wine taste better, and the synergy between the two takes your meal to a whole new dimension. In Wine Simple: Perfect Pairings, Aldo Sohm, with Christine Muhlke, provides an easy-to-use handbook for navigating the complex world of wine and how to pair it with food.

Drawing on years of experience in the industry and as wine director at three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin, Aldo distills his vast database of knowledge into a fun and useful guide that goes beyond general suggestions for what goes with what, instead teaching you how to think like a sommelier. While pairing wines is anything but formulaic, Aldo has developed an ingenious method that will help you better understand how wine and food can interact and open a new world of possibilities. Wine Simple: Perfect Pairings is organized into chapters that can be referenced at any time, or used chronologically to build upon each other:

The Wine How to Taste: Learn how to pick up on nuances in flavor and character while building what Aldo calls a “flavor library” to reference while pairing.

Meet The Wine Weights: You’ve probably encountered these already if you’ve ever asked for something “light and refreshing” or “medium-bodied. Aldo breaks down the characteristics for each weight so you can categorize with ease.

The Food: Think through specific elements of food and how they will interact with wine, like how bitter flavors can clash with acidic wine, and how sweet food should be matched with equally sweet wine to create a balanced pairing.

How to Pair Bringing it All Together: Meet the Aldorithm! This chapter will help you use the information in the preceding chapters in a series of considerations to dial in on a successful pairing. 

Whether you’re new to wine pairing or want to level up your knowledge, Wine Simple: Perfect Pairings will become your go-to guide for deciding what to drink with your meal.

Hardcover, 288 pages, 2025.

7.3 x 10.3 x 1 in.