A wine that goes with a wide variety of foods?

As Carl Sagan might say, there are billions and billions of possible food-and-wine pairings these days. Not only are we blessed with an ever-increasing array of wines, but the way we eat — pizza one night, Thai food the next, a fish fry every other Friday — is wider-ranging than ever.

But matching up vittles and vino actually has never been easier, because we've thrown out the rulebook.

Red wine can work with fish, white wine with beef tartare and pink wine with pretty much everything. Bubbly can be just as appropriate when the special occasion is a meal.

In place of the old standards, here are a few basic guidelines and an emphasis on different ways of approaching the potential pairing.

Textures and techniques, complements and contrasts, instinct and intuition, these are the pairing principles that work nowadays.

Pairings these days are all about guidelines and approaches. Here are five of each. GUIDELINES

A WEIGHTY MATTER

Call it texture, body, intensity or weight, but what a pairing comes down to is mouthfeel. Wine can overwhelm food, and vice versa. If the food is delicate and the wine is dense (shrimp scampi and cabernet sauvignon, for example) or vice versa (roast lamb and pinot grigio), it's best to put away the Riedel glassware and just go with water. If, on the other hand, both are rich (foie gras and Sauternes) or light (sautéed tilapia and sauvignon blanc), we have a winner. Interestingly, if the weight's the same, the color of the wine matters a lot less.

LIKE WITH LIKE

This applies to flavors as readily as weight. Foods that go well with butter (lobster, corn, popcorn) mesh big-time with buttery chardonnays. Charred dishes, even seafood, pair nicely with oaky red wines, as do smoked cheeses with oaky whites. Earthy wild rice is delicious with loamy syrah. Spicy Asian food and a tropical off-dry gewürztraminer are a marriage made in culinary heaven. This "mirror" principle also applies with more ineffable descriptors: "Robust" or "humble" or "noble" foods and wines simply go together, and provide a great opportunity to test -- and trust -- your instincts and experience.

OPPOSITES CAN ATTRACT

That same wild-rice dish that sings with the hearty syrah also might rock with a refreshing riesling. Wines with acidity can provide great contrasts, cutting through and punching up smoky, briny or creamy elements. Rich foods and crisp wines often make for a beautiful relationship. Salty dishes can play splendidly with sweet wines. Finally, many of us believe that the best way to showcase a complex older wine is with a simple entree such as roast chicken or grilled steak or lamb chops.

MATTERS OF TASTE

There are few perfect pairings but tons of decent ones; the key is to avoid bad ones. Taking into account the five basic tastes is a great start. Sweet sauces and desserts should be accompanied by wines at least as sweet. With dishes that trigger bitterness, try full-bodied wines. Salty and sour food flavors accentuate a wine's sweetness, making them a better match with acidic wines. Umami (savory) flavors bring out a wine's bitterness, making softer pinot noirs a decent fit. From the wine end, tannins accentuate heat, so red wines rarely complement super-spicy food (save for zinfandel and barbecue).

METHOD ACTING

Cooking techniques can be instructive. There are few more perfect unions than braised meats and full-bodied reds -- which wouldn't work at all with fried food. (A wine-savvy friend raves about white Burgundy with Popeye's fried chicken; I haven't had the gumption to go there, but an albarino or Cru Beaujolais sounds about right.) Poaching calls for a light white, roasting for a hearty red. But veggies that have been roasted until they're caramelized (sugary and concentrated) are wonderful with an off-dry white. By the way, if you're cooking with wine, use what you'll be drinking if possible.

APPROACHES

THE MAIN INGREDIENT?

Not so much: The old pair-with-the-protein paradigm is not dead, but is often a misguided action. Consider chicken: Decidedly different wines would be used for fried vs. roasted vs. barbecued bird, not to mention preparations ranging from parmesan and piccata to pad thai and pot pies. But even with more strongly flavored meats, matching up with sauces or seasonings often makes infinitely more sense. "My first instinct in pairing is whatever component seems to be the strongest in the dish," said Bill Summerville, co-owner and wine pooh-bah of La Belle Vie restaurant in Minneapolis.

TAKE IT TO THE BRIDGE

If you know what wine you're serving, adjust the food accordingly. With a peppery shiraz, add black pepper to your main dish, as a "bridge" ingredient. Herbs (woody rosemary with oaky tempranillo) and spices (cloves or anise with pinot blanc) are great bridge ingredients, as are fruits (berries with fruity merlot), nuts (toasted almonds with toasty chardonnay) and even fungi (mushrooms with earthy red Burgundy). "The best way to think about wine," said KaTrina Wentzel, co-owner of the Wine Thief store, "is not as a food but as a condiment. That makes pairing much easier."

WHEN IN DOUBT, THINK OLD (WORLD)

Wines from Europe tend to have more acidity and less alcohol than their New World counterparts -- think Chianti and Chablis -- making them more balanced and decidedly food-friendlier. "Europeans look at wine as food," said Karl Rigelman, wine guru at the Minikahda Club, "whereas Americans look at it as an alcoholic beverage. Prohibition did us a disservice that way." Europe also provides better regional pairings, in the "if it grows together, it goes together" vein. Great mates include ratatouille and Rhône reds, tomato sauces and Tuscan sangiovese, goat cheese and Vouvray from the Loire.

UNCONVENTIONAL THINKING (AND FLIP-FLOPPING)

The big, extracted, high-alcohol wines that so many Americans favor are often better fits as "cocktail wines," as they can overpower food. "We vinify it to be consumed on its own rather than as part of a meal," said Rigelman. Conversely, a lot of wines that generally are consigned to aperitif status -- rosé, champagne, riesling -- can be wonderful, versatile food accompaniments. Dry sherries and most soups can be quite complementary. A bonus: These wines' acidity stimulates the appetite -- it's a mucus thing, so the less said about that, the better.

WHATEVER YOU LIKE

Be brave, courageous and bold. "Don't be intimidated," said Rigelman. "The days of the condescending dude in the corduroy sport coat with patches on his sleeve are gone." Palates vary. I recently had one wine expert tell me that she tastes lemon in every white wine, and another savant say that he gets peach in every white. Experiment, and don't be afraid to fail. Remember that there are few perfect pairings. If you (and your guests) are having food that you like and wine that you like, how bad an overall experience can it be?