Now that we’re officially into barbecue season, you may think of having beer with your grilled grub, but wine can also work. Whether you love BBQ seafood, veggies, chicken or beef, there’s a wine for that.
Here with her tips for you is Natalie MacLean who offers Canada’s most popular online wine and food pairing classes at nataliemaclean.com/class.
Welcome Natalie!
Let’s start with lighter fare like grilled veggies and seafood. Which wines work well with those?
Loimer Grüner Veltliner
Kamptal D.A.C., Austria
Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling
Columbia Valley, Washington, United States
What are the best wines to pair with these dishes?
This is a beautiful Rosé from Niagara-on-the-Lake from Ravine Vinyard. What I love about rosé and grilled flavours is that it lifts and lightens the cherry notes of the flavour. So, if you’re doing grilled chicken or grilled pork, rosé also to me has the best of both worlds. It has all the beautiful flavours of a red wine like your red berries, your field strawberries, but none of the heavy oak or alcohol that you don’t want when you’re out in the summer heat.
Ravine Vineyard Estate Winery Cabernet Rosé
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario V.Q.A., Canada
What about grilled chicken, are there any wines to avoid?
Grilled Chicken is a staple on people’s barbecue and it’s pretty universal. A good idea to avoid generally out in the backyard, is your fancy expensive wines like mature Bordeaux’s. It’s kind of like wearing a tuxedo in the backyard. Not only will you be a social misfit, but, who are you trying to impress anyway? The flavours are lost. You have the aromas of freshly cut grass, you’ve got the grill going, you’ve got suntan lotion, so you don’t want a subtle wine. Those are best saved for your indoor dinner parties in the winter.
A good wine to try with your grilled chicken in addition to the Rosé is a like Pinot Noir. It has lots of fruity flavours to it, like this Blackforest Pinot Noir from Germany, we think of Burgundy for Pinot Noir, but Germany produces lots of great Pinot Noir that are more fruity and far more affordable. Like this one under $15.
Black Forest Cuvee Noir
Baden, Germany
Which wines work for heartier fare like grilled hamburgers, steaks and sausages?
So when we’re talking hearty food is the time to bring out your muscular wines like this Stave & Steel Cabernet Sauvignon. What’s really special about this is that the wine was aged in bourbon barrels and what that does to this Cabernet that’s already a full bodied wine, is it gives us this caramelized toffee finish. It’s beautiful when there’s caramelization on steak or hamburgers that often have quite sweet fixings like ketchup, relish and mayo. You need a wine that has this sort of toffee finish
Stave & Steel Bourbon Barrel Aged Cabernet Sauvignon
California, United States
Another is Wakefield Shiraz, this one’s from Australia. This is gorgeous. Again, it’s subtle but it’s smooth. You don’t want a big furry mouth full of tannin out in the backyard. You’ve got lots of juicy, fleshy, ripe plum flavours that would go well with grilled sausages or burgers.
Wakefield Winery Shiraz
Clare Valley, South Australia, Australia
It’s no coincidence that both Australia and America are known for their barbecues, and they produce really wonderful full bodied wines to pair with both.
Thank you Natalie, great to see you.
Natalie MacLean offers Canada’s most popular wine classes. You can visit her online at www.nataliemaclean.com
Posted with permission from Global TV
