Stepping into a well-run wine shop during the holiday season can be a downright festive experience. And it should be festive, particularly if you’re looking for just the right vintage to match with your favorite holiday dishes.

Fortunately for both veteran and novice wine buffs alike, Greater Des Moines has an abundance of shops whose staffs pride themselves on providing advice on wine selections. After all, isn’t half the fun of buying wine the adventure of learning and trying out new tastes?

We talked with a few local wine experts to find out what they’re recommending to their customers, and to ask them about some of their guidelines for pairing great wines with delectable dishes for the holiday.

OK, so do you choose the menu first, and then think about the wine?

“Absolutely,” says “wine guy” Kyl Cabbage, president of The Wine Experience. “That’s opposite of how I do life, but I think it’s better when people come to us and say, ‘We’re having standing prime rib roast and we’re having people over for Christmas dinner who like a little bit of wine, and they enjoy red wines. What would you suggest?’ Then we can whittle it down to how intense the flavors are going to be, how much seasonings you’re going to use and how you’re going to cook it, because rare flavors have a different component than well-done flavors.”

Generally, “you want to match the power of the food with the power of the wine, so that one doesn’t overpower the other,” Cabbage said.

A fun way to learn about wine is by doing, and wine shops are taking tastings to new levels. Every Friday and Saturday night, for instance, The Wine Experience hosts a four-course comparative food and wine dinner for $65 per person.

“We change menus every month, so we’re always doing new and different combinations,” Cabbage said. “As each course of food is served, our chef explains the preparation of the dinner and we talk about the wines and why we chose them to go together.”

If you like the food and you like the wine, you’re probably going to like them together, even if they’re not a traditional match, he said.

“So if you tend to like a sweeter wine, and you come and ask me which wine to do with steak, I’m probably going to recommend you do a sweeter wine to match your taste range. Classically, it would be real hearty dry red, but if you hate those wines, you’re going to hate the combination.”

One of the “craze” wines this year has been Moscato d’Asti, which ranges from $10 to $25 per bottle. Made in the northwestern Italian village of Asti, the wine is made from large, ripe grapes that have very thin skins. “So it’s sweet, it’s fruity and it has a little bit of fizz to it, and people just go nuts over it,” Cabbage said.

The last three months of the year are a great time to buy wine, both for cellaring and for entertaining, said Brian Kinsella, an Urbandale-based wine consultant. “It’s a mixture of both, because a large percentage of the best wines, including new vintages of established wines, are released in the last three months of the year,” said Kinsella.

His online business (www.thewinecompany.com), specializes in serving people who want to buy entire cases of wine, “either from my advice or from recommendations from sources like the Wine Spectator (magazine),” he said.

As it gets colder, “the white, full-bodied chardonnays are always popular,” he said. Depending on your price range, some good buys he recommends are the Leeuwin Artist Series chardonnay from Australia. Ranked 28th in the Wine Spectator Top 100, it sells for $58 a bottle. Another good choice is Domaine Serene Cotes Sud, an Oregon chardonnay that sells for $35. And for $15 a bottle, Calistoga Cellars is “a delightful and not too expensive” chardonnay from California, Kinsella said.

In the reds, he’s been selling a lot of Viader Proprietary Red from Howell Mountain, Calif., which goes for $65 a bottle.

John Teeling, owner of J T’s Fine Wine and Spirits in West Des Moines, said his shop has been recommending a lot of Spanish wines lately.

“They’re kind of paralleling what Italy did in cleaning up their wine and making it more of a value,” he said. “You can get a Montecello Grand Reserve 1996 for $25, and for that you’re getting a nice wine.” And if you’re ready for a switch from cabernets and pinots, consider a Spanish tempranillo or a la mouvedre, which are based on different types of grapes and are reasonably priced from $9 to $18 a bottle.

One of Teeling’s personal favorites for the holidays is Brunello di Montalcino, a premier Tuscany red that’s “very smooth and ages very well,” he said. It goes well with full-flavored foods such as pasta, lamb or wild boar.

“Hearty red wines are always popular this time of year,” Cabbage said, noting that the quality and availability of pinot noirs have improved greatly in the last five years. “Right now there’s good quality of pinot noir from around $17 to $50 a bottle.”

In a cabernet sauvignon, “we’re real fond of a small producer in Napa called Villa Mt. Eden,” Cabbage said. “Their Grand Reserve cabernet 2002, about $18, is just really rich and deep and full-bodied and exceptionally well-made for a small producer.”