Wine for the grill

BY RIC KITOWSKI & JOCELYN KLEMM

FIRING UP THE GRILL makes us think about new food and wine combinations. But cooking outdoors doesn’t mean we abandon our basic principles of matching, adjusting, and mirroring. They still apply; we’re just more flexible. Summertime is for relaxing!

The way food is prepared determines the intensity of its flavour, and grilling shifts the intensity up a notch or two. Add your secret sauce or spice rub and you’ve changed the balance again. Patio meals present a lot of different food combinations, so all our pairing principles apply in practice.

Summer weights

All foods have body and texture, a sense of how they feel in the mouth. The wines you choose should match the weight and texture of the food, neither overpowering the other.

Steak, for example, overpowers light-bodied wines, especially light-bodied white wines. Full-bodied, full-flavoured wines like Shiraz offer a more even match. However, the same Shiraz just flattens a simple green salad, which pairs better with light-bodied white wines like Albariño or Riesling. Grilled shrimps or scallops are excellent with these whites as well.

The way something is cooked also influences your choice of wine. Steaks cooked rare or medium rare go well with young, tannic red wines—the wine’s tannins and the steak’s proteins mellowing one another. Steaks cooked medium or well done are better suited to more mature, less tannic red wines.

Sauces and rubs

Sauces, rubs, and marinades will re-balance a dish, and become more dominant than what’s actually being grilled. Sauces and marinades can be light or rich, savoury or fruity, and creamy or zippy. Rubs can run the gamut from citrusy, to smoky, to spicy.

With a delicate sauce like olive oil, lemon and herbs on grilled chicken, choose a lighter-style (more delicate) wine like Pinot Grigio. With a more robust sauce like soy, ginger and garlic, pick a heartier wine like Primitivo from southern Italy. If the sauce is fruitier, as some barbeque sauces tend to be, similar elements can be found in wines like Merlot or Malbec.

Grilled fish or seafood with fruity marinades like a papaya salsa match wines with equally tropical aromas like Australian Verdelho or Grillo from Italy.

When grilling vegetables, mirror their natural earthiness with wines like Pinot Noir or slightly oaked Chardonnay, or add fresh herbs and match with VQA Ontario Sauvignon Blanc or dry Rosé.

Hot sauces are a challenge, as higher alcohol wines will increase the sensation of heat. Better to go with fruiter-style red wines like Gamay or Valpolicella for beef, or off-dry white wines like Gewürztraminer if you are grilling chicken or fish.

Up to the challenge

The more elements there are in a meal, the more latitude you have for picking a wine. When grilling a simple burger or steak, for example, with a fresh tomato salad and bread on the side, an equally simple wine will be fine; perhaps a light-bodied red wine like Chianti. But if the meal is spicy barbecued ribs, served with a fully loaded baked potato and grilled vegetables, opt for more complex wines like Shiraz blends (for example, Shiraz Grenache Mourvedre or SGM). The sweet and spicy sauce plus the sour cream and bacon bits add complexity and would overpower the lighter-style Chianti.

Chill

Your wine selections—white or red—won’t like the summer heat. It may seem obvious to keep your whites on ice, but do the same for the reds as well. It will accentuate the tannins slightly in the reds, but it’s better than serving warm, unbalanced wine.

Try these on the patio…

Chicken kebabs: unoaked Chardonnay won’t overpower, nor will a fruitier-style Merlot from Chile.
Burgers: perfect with Tempranillo from Spain or Malbec from Argentina, especially if you spice up the meat.
Veggie trays: the bright acidity in Sauvignon Blanc cuts the creamier dips and mirrors the herbal notes of the veggies.
Chicken or potato salad: try a dry Rosé from France (Tavel), or a crisp, dry Riesling from Ontario.
Corn chips and salsa: sparkling wine like Cava from Spain is our favourite match, or a slightly off-dry Riesling if there’s heat in the salsa.
Grilled fish: try a lighter-style Pinot Grigio if you are grilling pickerel, white fish or shrimp, or an oaky Chardonnay or Pinot Noir with richer fish like salmon, trout or lobster tails.