Wine with barbecue
A barbecue is smoke, charred sugar and fat, eaten in the sun from a plastic cup. Great wine is wasted here and heavy wine is a mistake: at thirty degrees nobody wants fourteen percent Shiraz. What you need is fruit, some tannin for the meat, and a serving temperature that can fight the heat.
Three styles that work
- 1
Rioja Crianza, lightly chilled
Tempranillo with a year in American oak gives vanilla and coconut that suit smoked meat, and the tannin is soft enough to drink chilled. Half an hour in the fridge puts it at sixteen degrees and it holds that for an hour. Affordable, available everywhere, nobody complains.
- 2
Chianti Classico
Sangiovese has the acidity that fatty meat needs and the cherries that belong with a grilled sausage. No heavy Riserva; a plain Classico from a good producer, and do not overfill the glass in the sun. With bistecca this is a home game.
- 3
Sparkling rosé
For the grilled vegetables, the chicken and the guests who refuse red. A rosé brut, whether champagne from Les Riceys or a Dutch sparkling rosé, brings red fruit and acidity and stays cold in the cooler. The one wine that works across the whole menu.
Without alcohol
Alcohol-free spritz on ice
Alcohol-free red wine with barbecue is not good enough yet; too thin for smoke. A bitter alcohol-free spritz with ice and a slice of orange is: it cuts through the fat and lasts the whole afternoon.
Frequently asked questions
Chilling red wine, is that allowed?
At a barbecue it is compulsory. A red wine standing in the sun hits 25 degrees within ten minutes and then tastes of alcohol and jam. Sixteen degrees is the target, and the cool box is your friend.
Which wine with spare ribs in sweet sauce?
Sweet asks for sweet, or at least ripe fruit. A Zinfandel or a demi-sec sparkling. A dry, taut wine turns sour and thin next to barbecue sauce.
No scores, but an opinion. The bottles I name I tasted myself; how each reached me is stated at the bottom of every review.