For many generations of newcomers it must have seemed that wine drinking was all about rules and rituals. Humiliation awaited anyone who did not know which wine went with which food, in which glass, at what temperature and in what circumstances. That of course was more about wine snobbery than wine rules, and fortunately that is now largely a thing of the past.
True, some guidelines will remain, perhaps the best known of which is red wine with red meat, white wine with white meat and seafood. Even that has little relevance to the cuisines of this continent, where the challenge is not so much a progressive build-up of flavours but of changing and balancing contrasting tastes and textures.
But while all bets might seem to be off in this case, correctly chosen wine will marry with - and carry - any or all of these combinations, adding fruit and acid, texture in the form of tannin, and sensations sweet or dry. My only statute here would be not to waste a good wine on a dish that is too strong for it, or impose the wrong wine on a dish for which it is too delicate.
What I mean is best summed up by something I saw in peak-hour traffic in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district. A young man was getting into a new sports car for a test drive. I'm sure he enjoyed the snail's pace ... about as much as we would enjoy a First Growth Chateau Lafite with something super-spicy. A fruit-rich, sunshine-driven Australian cabernet would do better for much less. Why squander a Lafite's horsepower?
Cabernet sauvignon, traditionally the king of reds, is a wonderful grape and wine. Consistency is its greatest attribute. While the French regard it as one of their handful of truly noble varieties, and its home in Bordeaux produces some of the most famed and expensive wines of the world, it performs extraordinarily well in just about every country to which it has been transplanted. Wherever it goes, whatever is asked of it, if you buy a cabernet it will taste like a cabernet.
What has changed most about cabernet in recent times has been the perception - carefully fostered by the great chateaux of Bordeaux - that this is a wine for long, long cellaring; 20 years in some cases, and up to a lifetime in a few.
It makes wines of abundant tannin, a great preserver, which needs only to be kept in balance with its fruit flavours to ensure a wine of style and longevity. Drink a fine old Bordeaux and the last lingering impression you will have is the fond farewell of the tannin's 'grip'.
But the Southern hemisphere in particular is making new rules for cabernet. Its new-style wines still look, smell and taste like cabernet, and the tannins are still there, but they are bathed in sweet-rich berry fruit flavours which make them appear much softer. These are wines where maturing is measured in terms of five to eight years, and for the inexpensive, even less.
Australia dominates this style and delivers it in many forms and price levels, but Chile and South Africa are also starting to show some excellent wines, mostly at competitive prices.
These softer-tannin reds are most suited to Asia's many cuisines. The cabernets can be confidently matched with such slow-cooked dishes as a meat hotpot or red-roasted pork shoulder - their natural tannins cutting across the oil of rich sauces as capably as a traditional strong tea.
It always pays to have some knowledge of what are the good, the indifferent and the bad years of a red wine region, especially those of the more weather-prone Northern hemisphere.
The Bordeaux wines you are most likely to come across are those of the 1980s and 1990s, and the entire 1980s remain reliable -1980 and 1984 being the least successful. The 1990s began well with the 1990 vintage but the years after were indifferent until 1995. Another genuine rule here, however, is great name chateaux like Mouton-Rothschild and Lynch-Bages seem always able to produce enjoyable wines.
The cabernets you will see from California and Australia will be from more recent vintages, which have generally been kind.
These are the wines I think are most suited to Asian cuisines. But let's not try to rule on it.
Roy Moorfield is a world-travelled expert and a consultant to Cathay Pacific on Australian wines.