Making the seasonal switch most summers from skinny salads to hearty game dishes is taxing. This year, I’ve been counting down the days to the glorious 12th, the official start of the game season, and at last it’s here. Warming, flavoursome comfort food like game comes as a blessed relief after cold, lifeless platters. So it’s time to work out what game dish and game wine you fancy.

Game meats vary dramatically in strength and intensity of flavour. Ditto the traditional game sauces, garnishes and gravies. As a rough rule-of-thumb, the paler the game meat the more delicate a flavour it will have. It also depends on how well-cooked you like game: pink and tender is obviously going to pack more of a flavour punch than grey and dry.

At the mildest end of the game spectrum are birds like guinea fowl, which are really only a notch gamier than chicken. Simply roasted and served unadorned, you could get away with a full-bodied white here, but otherwise it has to be red wines for game, preferably those whose earthy, spicy flavours echo those of the game meat.

The Rhône Valley is a good source of game reds, with cheaper, less assertive bottles working well with milder game. Guinea fowl and slightly gamier meats such as rabbit will go down a treat with good, ordinary rhônes such as the Celliers des Dauphins Réserve-level 2005 Côtes du Rhône, a blend of three quarters grenache to one quarter syrah, oozing gentle, peppery spice and warm, southern fruit (£5.99, Morrisons). Or push the boat out with the superb 2004 Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Domaine des Sénéchaux, a whiz with stronger game casseroles and £15.10, or £13.40 each by the unmixed case, at Haynes, Hanson & Clark (020-7584 7927).

Red burgundy is an even better partner to game, as the truffley spice of the pinot noir grape perfectly matches the tastes of the meats. And you can still buy supermarket red burgundy sub-£6: try Sainsbury’s tasty, £5.49, juicy, spicy, plummy 2005 Red Burgundy from Antonin Rodet. Delicate lesser burgundies like this work well with roast partridge on the next game level up. Or, for £8.49, you could try an equally accommodating rioja: Marks & Spencer’s rich, spicy, sandalwood-scented 2001 Marqués de Romeral Reserva will be a hit with tomorrow’s young grouse, provided you go easy on garnishes.

Pheasant when it arrives deserves a top-drawer red burgundy, and the superb rich, gamey, oaky, almost Marmite-licked fruit of Lamy-Pillot’s 2005 Chassagne-Montrachet (£14.99, Waitrose) is the answer. Venison, boar, hare and the like merit bigger, bolder game reds, and here zinfandel is the star turn, with the burly, blackberry spice of the 2004 Ravenswood Lodi Old Vines a great buy (£7.49, Waitrose; buy three for £6.33 each, Thresher; buy two for £6.49 each, Majestic).

Thank goodness for game.

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