"Honest", "stylish", "elusive", and "playful" are great adjectives to describe wine, but choosing the right one to go with your food is, first and foremost, about getting it right with the 5 basic tastes:
There are endless things to learn about wine. Grapes can develop up to 200 flavor compounds, they develop and taste differently according to soil, climate and rainfall. And then there is pressing, bottling, storage...
But first of all you need to know how to combine the basic tastes in your food with the basic tastes in your glass of wine. (Reminder: They are: Sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami.)
A very basic and useful guide:
