Which wine goes with a tabletop grill, fondue and raclette?

With cheese fondue, a dry white wine with plenty of acidity and little oak goes well, such as chasselas from Switzerland, riesling, sauvignon blanc or aligoté.

Cheese fondue is rich and salty. According to its specification, Gruyère AOP contains 49 to 53 percent fat in dry matter and matures for at least five months. Acidity cuts through that fat and keeps the mouth fresh. Choose the same wine you use in the pot, and the flavours will not clash. Oak-aged Chardonnay and heavy red wines usually cannot cut through it.

Raclette goes well with a dry white wine from the same kind of region as the cheese, or a light red wine without firm tannins.

Raclette comes to the table with potatoes, gherkins, pickled silverskin onions and often some dried ham. Those sour accompaniments call for wine with acidity, not power. White wines from the Alps and the Jura work well, as do pinot noir or gamay. Serve the red wine at about 14 degrees Celsius, so cooler than room temperature, otherwise it becomes heavy next to the melted cheese.

With gourmet, choose one wine for the whole table: a light red wine or a dry rosé, because everyone cooks something different.

On a gourmet set, steaks, chicken strips, salmon, prawns, vegetables and cheese all go together, often with herb butter and sauces on the side. A wine with a lot of tannin clashes with the fish and the sauce. A light red such as gamay, pinot noir, cinsault or a young grenache goes with meat and fish at the same time. Put a dry white next to it and the table is set.

Into the fondue goes a dry white wine with firm acidity, about 200 millilitres per 400 grams of cheese, with a clove of garlic and a splash of kirsch.

The acid in the wine keeps the cheese bound and helps prevent splitting. Do not use a sweet or oak-aged wine, because residual sugar and vanilla do not suit melted cheese. Take the same wine you drink with it, and the flavours will not clash. If necessary, bind with a spoonful of cornstarch, mixed in the kirsch.

For gourmet, fondue and raclette, allow about half a 0.75 litre bottle per adult guest, so four bottles for eight people.

An evening like this is long, often two to three hours, so people drink more slowly than at a three-course dinner. With cheese fondue, wine also goes into the pot, about 200 millilitres per 400 grams of cheese, so count that separately. Put water on the table and keep an alcohol-free bottle at hand for anyone who is driving or is not yet 18.