Don't listen to the skeptics, beer is not the only acceptable drink with BBQ! While I can appreciate and really enjoy an Ice cold bottle of Dos Equis with my pork ribs slathered in BBQ sauce, I also love gettin' down with BBQ beef ribs and a nice bottle of zin, and for those of you who have read my blog before, you know how I feel about Zin. As my very good friend Lara begins to prepare for her annual BBQ extravaganza, she has asked if I would make some suggestions for pairing and well just plain old great tasting wine when hangin in the backyard with your friends in the summer. So here goes!
When choosing wines to accompany your BBQ, you can easily find happy partners to your BBQ with inexpensive and mid priced wines. Save that bottle of 1995 Chateaux de La Dee Daa for a sedate occasion that features more subtle food to allow your wine to shine forth without distractions. Remember, we are talking about pairing wine with smoked pit style BBQ and not grilled meat cooked over an open flame. Grill friendly wines can be a little different than what works well with BBQ.
The first rule to remember about wine and food pairing is important and must never, ever be broken. Commit it to memory and you will always succeed at wine and food pairing. The rule is: There are no rules! If you like to heat up 25 year old burgundy and dunk marshmallows in it, then go for it. The following are just my suggestions and the philosophy behind it. So hopefully, some of you will find worthwhile advice to enhance your enjoyment of BBQ. I always like to think about an old friend's advice when it comes to food and dining: it is the people at the table and not the food on the table that matter most. I would add that if you don’t find this to be true then amend your guest list accordingly.
In general, I find that wines served with the big flavors of BBQ must be assertive. Finding a wine that will get along well with cloyingly sweet BBQ sauce that has a lot of molasses and liquid smoke in it is the most challenging. Many of the most common brands of bottled sauces fit this description. You will be better off making your own sauce or trying a specialty brand.
This is a good time to mention that if the BBQ you are eating is prepared properly, it should not “need” sauce, Sauce should be an enhancement – not the main feature. I’ll lift a quote from a great BBQ home page where they describe the qualities of good BBQ. “The best barbecue has a caramelized mahogany crust of crunchy goodness with incredible smoky~spicy flavors of its own. It doesn’t need to be drowned in sauce to imitate the taste of real barbecue. In fact, in some parts of the country, sauce is provided only for tourists. The locals eat it “naked”, or with just a dab of sauce for contrasting flavor.” The double think in the expression that the “secret's in the sauce”, is one way of saying that the meat is dependent on the BBQ Sauce for flavor because it doesn’t have enough flavor of its own because it wasn’t done right in the first place. Rant over. I hereby promise to only talk about wine for the rest of this page. Man I love BBQ drama!
SPARKLING WINES
Practically any sparkler from California, Spain or Italy will be great with BBQ. Those tiny bubbles will scrub your palate and make each bite of Que taste like your first.
At the lower end of the price scale, you can pick up a bottle of Proseco at Trader Joe’s for around 5 bucks. Its light, floral, fruity and great at a Summer afternoon BBQ. Cold Duck and Asti Spumante are of the same price range. Blush sparkling wines are especially good with BBQ. Moving up in price, Cava from Freixenet is good for around $9.00 and Segura Vida (also from the Ferrer family) is an excellent value for about $14.00 and is a personal favorite. Now you are moving into the price range of California sparkling wine as well. Whatever your budget is, there are a lot to choose from.
White Wine
Reds are my favorite with BBQ but some white wines will work as well, especially with Pulled Pork and Chicken. Look for lean fruity whites with bight steely flavors to cut through the rich and sometimes fatty flavors of BBQ. Fuggetabout most California Chard. Its usually too oakey and buttery. You are better off with a French Chablis style wine. The crisp, bright, flinty flavors will cut through the rich, tongue coating qualities of BBQ. Many of the more inexpensive whites at your local wine shop will fit the bill perfectly. Try:
Sauvignon Blanc
Chenin Blanc
Pinot Grigio
Muscadet
Verdichhiio
Pinot Gris
Red Wine
Reds should be big, well balanced, smooth and not over the top in alcohol. I like red wines that have great fruit and balanced acidity. Luscious, ripe berry flavors and complex spice make an interesting counterpoint to BBQ. I find that wines over 14.5% are often “hot” and they open your taste buds up wide and then the heat from the spice becomes very prominent and overwhelms other flavors. Here are some recommendations from the tasting we did recently to gather information for this web page.
Syrah/ Shiraz – Same grape with a different name down under. A nice shiraz with silky, smoky tannins, red berry and ripe fruit flavors will work well with BBQ. Lately, from Sonoma County I’ve tried Benziger $23.00 and Roseblum as well as several Australian wines from Rosemount and Koonunmga Hill for $13.00. Owne Rowe Syrah for about 20.00 per bottle is my favorite but adds a bit of cost.
Zins - The young spicy ones with lots of black pepper and raspberry work especially well with BBQ. Zin is also one of my favorite wines. It's hard to find one you won’t like. I recently had a bottle of Alexander Valley’s Sin Zin. It's fairly priced at 14.00 and is a good one. Other favorites come from Ridgr, Turley, Biale and Neyer. The Old Vine Zin from St. Francis Vineyards is also a winner. Anything from the Dry Creek area should also be terrific!
Cote Du Rhone is another good choice in the medium price range. Its smooth, well behaved tannins and smoky finish are just right with pulled pork and pork ribs.
Rioja is a great choice for BBQ. This Spanish red wine is spicy and fruity. Its bold, fresh flavors can really stand up to the assertive flavors of BBQ. Beef brisket, beef ribs and all grilled beef will work extremely well with this wine.
Riojas are intended to be drunk at a coolish temperature. 58 to 65 degrees is a good range. Try chilling it on ice or in the refrigerator. Use a food thermometer to get it right the first time and give you a reference point for the future. By chilling the wine you will disarm rough tannins and volatile alcohol.
So many wines and so little time. Here is a list of other varietals to experiment with.
Petite Syrah
Barbara
Chianti
Barbera and Chianti are also best when slightly chilled.
Whatever you choose to drink with your BBQ, just have fun and enjoy the folks gathered around your table.
-a
