Carpe Wine: Red, White and BBQ

Food and wine pairings are subjective to each of our personal palates. No one pairing is going to be perfect for everyone. I truly believe that wine and food don’t have to be perfectly paired to be delicious. However, wine is meant to complement food and having those “wow” moments with food and wine are some of my favorite experiences. The best way to learn what pairings work for your palate is to experiment, and I’ve got some fun summer BBQ wine experimentation for you.

The rule of thumb has always been to pair red wine with red meat and white wine with white meat. That’s the easy go-to. When you add barbecue sauce and smoke to your meats, it steps things up a level. Add in all the side dishes, and you have a kaleidoscope of flavors. You can still follow the rule of thumb, or experiment with flavors.

For your experimentation, it’s important to understand why one type of wine pairs better than another. When you’re pairing any food, consider its acidity and sweetness. The two should be similar in both the food and the wine. Sauvignon blanc has higher acidity, along with citrus and herb flavors. Thus, a lemon vinaigrette dressing or mustard-based BBQ sauce — with that kick of acidity — would be excellent together. Tomatoes are acidic. Thus, most tomato-based BBQ sauces will have a nice balance of acidity and sweetness; some easy go-tos are Chianti, sangiovese, syrah, malbec, cabernet franc, and pinot noir.

Pork is considered by many to be “the other white meat,” and you can definitely pair it with white wines. However, lighter-bodied, fruit-forward red wines can go just as well. If you are smoking pork and adding sweet and savory red BBQ sauce, a fruit-forward red wine (that’s been chilled) would be perfect. Think pinot noir, zinfandel, barbera or a rosé.

I do tend to stick with the rule of thumb when it comes to grilled red meats, only because I’ve done a lot of my own experimentation and find the tannins in red wine cut through the fat and umami in the red meat, making it that perfect “wow” bite. I will veer from the easy picks of merlot and cabernet sauvignon with BBQ, and suggest trying a chilled Chianti, barbera, barbaresco, tempranillo or a grenache-syrah-mourvèdre blend. These wines are fun, different from your everyday sipping wines and will enhance the peppery and tobacco flavors in the red meat.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

Here’s a quick cheat sheet to help your BBQ wine pairings. Remember, all the red wines need to be chilled.

• BBQ chicken: Grüner veltliner, chardonnay or my new summer favorite, pinot blanc  

• Veggie skewers or veggie burger: Gamay, dry rosé, pinot noir, sauvignon blanc or chardonnay

• Pork chops: Barbera, riesling, dry rosé

• Ribs and brisket: Barbera, barbaresco, tempranillo, GSM blend, nebbiolo

• Lobster: Riesling, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, pinot gris, gamay, pinot noir

• Salmon and shrimp: Champagne, chardonnay, pinot Gris, pinot blanc, pinot noir

• Hot dogs and hamburgers: Dry rosé, zinfandel, malbec, cabernet franc, pinot noir, nebbiolo

When in doubt, drink a dry rosé or champagne, they pair with almost everything (not prosecco — the sweetness and acidity are not the same as Champagne). Seriously, when was the last time you had Champagne and a burger? The acidity cuts through the meat but the creaminess enhances the umami in the meat. It is simply exquisite.

Elaine Schoch is an award-winning travel writer and wine judge, certified by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2, and a certified American Wine Expert. She is also the editor at Carpe Travel, a content site focused on wine travel. You can follow her wine 101 and sipping adventures on Carpe Travel or Instagram.