People love to tell you that BBQ and beer go hand in hand. It’s that or whiskey. But what about the wine drinkers? Where do we fit in?
Some may suggest that most wines are far too delicate for BBQ or that BBQ is too intense and smoky for most wines.
Well, we call their bluff.
Any style of BBQ, whether traditional and regional styles or what we’re doing here in the Pacific Northwest, has a wine that can pair. It’s just about understanding a bit about how wine and food pairings work in general and applying that to any recipe cooked over a wood fire.
Well, there are some who can’t imagine anything else but an ice-cold beer to drink with their spareribs, and that’s absolutely fine. Go forth and enjoy that beer!
But there are others who want to know if it’s OK to sip on merlot with those same ribs. And to those people we say, first, you don’t need anyone’s permission to drink wine with whatever the heck you’re grilling or barbecuing, and, second, the answer is a resounding YES! Yes, you can!
This book is for you.
But if you’re not a wine drinker at all, then this book is still for you! The wine, for those who love it, plays a minor yet important role. It’s there to enhance and elevate the experience for those who choose it. But the recipes are the stars of this book, and wine is a supporting character. And of course, you don’t need to drink anything to enjoy the seventy-plus recipes covered in this book. But if you happen to be wine curious and getting a little thirsty, read on.
Since this isn’t a book about winemaking, our goal is to provide a basic understanding of how food and wine pairings work and how these principles apply to the wood-fired recipes in this cookbook. There are plenty of excellent resources if you would like to go into more depth about the winemaking process.
We want to start off by saying that there is no such thing as a “perfect pairing.” To imply something is perfect means it cannot be topped, it is without fault, unequivocal, flawless. That is impossible to achieve with something as subjective as taste.
No two people taste things exactly the same, so what may be perfect to me may not be perfect to you. We can go on and on about how amazing this lamb dish is with this bottle of pinot noir, but if you’re just not a pinot noir fan, the pairing won’t work for you and there is nothing we can do to convince you otherwise. Period. There’s nothing wrong with the pairing; it’s just not for you. And that’s OK!
When you read about food and wine pairing, you’re also likely to run into a series of rules, like “pair red wine with red meat,” or “pair white wine with white meat and fish.” While an adequate start, this is grossly oversimplified.
You might also learn that the number one “rule” of food and wine pairing is to “ignore the rules and drink what you like.” While this is absolutely true (it is certainly important that you enjoy the wine in your glass), we do believe that there are some basic factors that can give you a base to understand an intricate subject without overthinking or oversimplifying it.
Wine is meant to be fun and enjoyable, not intimidating or rigid. So let’s flush out the idea that there are any official rules to pairing wine with food. Instead, let’s talk in terms of recommendations that will help you get the most out of any dining experience where wine is involved. Recommendations are just that, suggestions you can choose to follow or not. Who knows, maybe you’ll even have an “aha” moment with a pairing that may just be perfect for you.
CREATING SYNERGY: As the great wine educators Kevin Zraly and Andrea Robinson suggest in Zraly’s famous Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, the primary focus of any food and wine pairing should be about synergy–creating something that tastes better than the individual components do on their own (that “aha” moment referred to earlier).
It is also about balance. The food should not overpower the wine, nor should the wine overpower the food.
Pay attention to the following elements of food and wine, especially in how they apply to wood-fired cuisine.
COMPLEMENTING FLAVORS: The taste of the food and the wine being consumed together should be similar. Sauce shouldn’t be sweeter than the wine, and the acid in the dish should be sufficiently matched to the acid levels in the wine. Now when it comes to the BBQ sauces in this book, most are certainly sweeter than any given wine recommended. But you’ll apply the sauces sparingly or in a way that brings out the protein’s flavor so that the BBQ sauce is not the dominant flavor. You’ll have plenty of wine options with BBQ. More on this later.
CONTRASTING FLAVORS: Opposites attract. Match up contrasting flavors such as a sweet wine with a salty dish, a sweet wine with a spicy dish, or even a light, high-acid wine with a rich, fatty dish. This applies to many recipes in this book, where we tame a slightly spicy dish with a slightly sweet-style wine, creating synergy.
BODY AND WEIGHT: The weight of a dish should be matched by the weight of the wine.
When it comes to detecting the weight in wine, the best analogy we’ve heard is to compare skim milk with whole milk and heavy cream. Skim milk is light on the palate. The more you move toward cream, the heavier it feels on your palate. Light-bodied wines, like pinot gris, for example, feel more like skim milk, whereas full-bodied wines, like syrah or zinfandel, are closer to that whole-milk feel. Both white wines and red can fit into both light-bodied and full-bodied categories.
Oak usage in wine will generally translate to a heavier feel on your palate. Some wines say on the label if they have been aged in oak. Others won’t. If you are unsure, it’s best to ask the wine steward in your wine shop or liquor store.
FULL-BODIED DISHES WITH FULL-BODIED WINES: Our Wine-Braised Smoked Lamb Shanks (this page) pair well with a full-bodied red wine like cabernet franc or a full-bodied syrah. Avoid pairing rich braised dishes like this with, say, a lighter-bodied pinot noir or gamay, since most are delicate and would be overpowered by a heavy, rich dish.
MEDIUM-BODIED DISHES WITH MEDIUM-BODIED WINES: Pair a dish like Smoked Whole Chicken (this page) with a medium-bodied white wine or pinot noir. Avoid a heavy red wine because the light flavors of the dish would be overwhelmed.
LIGHT-BODIED DISHES WITH LIGHT-BODIED WINES: Pair a dish like Grilled Whole Trout (this page), with an albariño or chenin blanc. As with the medium-bodied example above, a heavy wine would overpower a light, delicate dish.
ACIDITY: Acid is one of the most important factors to consider, and it is found in both food and wine. It’s what keeps a wine lively on the palate and gives it an innate ability to pair with food because it acts as a palate cleanser. Good acidity in wine can be detected by a sharpness or jolt in the mouth, usually near the front of your tongue, followed by your mouth starting to water. In general, the more your mouth waters, the higher the acidity.
When it comes to pairing, the acidity of the dish should be matched by the acidity in the wine. This can be hard to detect, we know.
If the food is more acidic than the wine, then the wine will taste flabby or flat. Think about what happens to soda when the carbonation wears off; it gets flat, uninteresting, and all you taste is the sugar. Want to test this out? Try tasting a salad with lemon- and vinegar-based dressing (two ingredients that are very high in acidity) paired with a viognier or an oaked chardonnay from a warmer region in California. The wine, which has much less acidity than the dressing, will taste unbalanced and flat paired with the high-acid dish, but a high-acid wine, like sauvignon blanc, can work quite well.
Consider the pairing of Chianti (an Italian region and high-acid wine made from sangiovese grapes) and spaghetti or pizza (made with tomato sauce). The tomatoes are high in acid and the sauce is usually medium to heavy bodied. Both go well with a wine that is matched in weight and also high in acid. You’ll find a similar pairing on this page with our Smoked Beef Lasagne, paired with sangiovese or barbera.
Generally speaking, wines from cooler climates tend to display higher levels of acidity. Wines high in acid include (but are not limited to) sparkling wine, sauvignon blanc, riesling, albariño, pinot gris/grigio, sangiovese, barbera, gamay, and pinot noir.
We’re so passionate about Oregon wines because the majority of them are made in a cool climate, making them good candidates for food pairing, even BBQ.
ACIDITY IN BBQ: Similarly, acid pops up in BBQ in the form of sauces that have an apple cider base, as well as in condiments such as mustard and relish.
Take the Grilled Lamb Steaks with Salsa Verde on this page, for example. The meat alone is a touch gamy and rich, but the green salsa topping the steaks is bright, herbaceous, and full of lively acidic flavors from the fresh lemon juice and apple cider vinegar. Acid is just as important in balancing out a dish, even BBQ, as it is in balancing out a wine.
SWEETNESS: Sweet is residual sugar, or sugar that is left after fermentation, that remains in the wine. Quite often it is confused for fruity characteristics that may have zero residual sugar. Lots of fruit aromatics can come across as “sweet,” even though a wine could be technically “dry.”
The golden rule of sweet foods and wine is that sweetness of a dish should be matched or exceeded by the sweetness of the wine (a dry wine would taste sour and unpleasant). When it comes to pairing sweet, understand that sweetness reduces perception of sweetness. When you taste a sweet wine paired with an equally sweet dish, you notice the perceived sweetness less. When paired correctly, they balance each other out, creating harmony.
This can be hard to detect (especially in desserts, which is why pairing wine and chocolate can be tricky but not impossible). Sweet wines also pair well with contrasting flavors, like spicy food. This is because sweet wines can help to cool and refresh the palate after a bite of something with a spicy kick to it. An example of a wine that can be sweet is riesling. More and more riesling wines now have a useful scale on the back of the label letting you know the sweetness level of the wine.
If a wine is described as “dry,” then it usually has zero to very little residual sugar (or sweetness) to it.
SWEETNESS IN BBQ: Much of what has been written about BBQ and wine pairing implies that all BBQ is sweet (or heavy on the smoke), but this is simply not the case with the recipes in this book. While we have many sweet sauces, we hope that you’ll find they are balanced out with a slight spice, that kiss of smoke, all balanced with the savory proteins they are applied to.
Don’t be afraid of the seemingly sweet-looking recipes in this book. Our dishes are intended to be a balance of sweet, spicy, and savory. And like a well-made wine, not one element should dominate or stand out too much.
ALCOHOL: Alcohol is the result of fermentation, which is the biological process that converts sugars (naturally found in grapes) into energy, producing ethanol (alcohol) and carbon dioxide as by-products. The amount of alcohol in wine is based on various factors, such as how much sugar the grapes had to begin with before fermentation. Alcohol in wine ranges from around 9 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) on the very low side to 15 percent on the high side, with the majority of wines in the 12 percent to 14 percent range.
When it comes to pairing food with alcohol, consider the following: alcohol accentuates heat. Try tasting a high-alcohol wine like a zinfandel, which has more than 15 percent ABV, paired with a really spicy dish. Everything, both the wine and the dish, will taste hotter (the food will seem spicier and the wine will seem more alcoholic). For spicy dishes, it’s best to serve a medium- to low-alcohol wine, or, for contrast, a wine that is slightly sweet and refreshing to cool and cleanse the palate. This is why beer and hot wings are a match made in heaven. But of course, this book isn’t about beer.
Alcohol is accentuated by salt and pepper. This is important to consider with dry rubs, which can be both salty and sweet. Too much salt in a dish will make a wine seem “hot,” or more alcoholic.
COOKING METHODS: Cooking methods, from sauté versus grilling versus smoking, will alter the flavor of any given food and its resulting wine pairing. The two styles of cooking provided throughout this book are grilling and smoking (as explained in Fire, this page).
COOKING WITH WINE: Simply put, when cooking with wine, make sure you would willingly drink the wine you are cooking with. From there you can use almost anything. White acidic wines are great in a sauté, beurre blanc, or risotto. Reds can richen a marinade, be used for braising, or add flavor to a red sauce.
MARINATING: Marinating provides great complexity of flavor, while also tenderizing the meat. If wine is used as a part of the marinade, the acid in the wine will help break down the tough fibers of the meat. Marinating with wine is great for breaking down beef cuts like hanger or flank.
OAK IN WINE: Most red wines and some white wines (many chardonnays, in particular) are fermented and/or aged in oak barrels, often imparting subtle vanilla, caramel, oak, toast, char, or smoky characteristics to the wines. As mentioned above, oak can also impart tannins to wines. While oak can be a distracting factor in pairing with some cuisines, the flavors that result from oak can be quite complementary to grilled and smoked foods.
SAUCES: Sauces change all the so-called rules and will ultimately determine the wine recommendations. Sauces range from salsas or relishes to dressings to tomato-based sauces (like Kansas City–inspired sauces) to finishing glazes (like honey and a jam combined).
Take pork, for example. The Grilled Pork Chops with Dried Cherry Relish (this page) leans toward red wine because of the flavors in the relish. But the Grilled Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Savory Apple Bacon Chutney (this page) is better with a white wine. Same protein, different sauces, different wine-pairing potential.
TANNIN: Tannin in wine comes from two different sources: the skins and seeds of the grapes and the wood tannins that come from oak-barrel aging. Tannins are most commonly found in red wines (though they can be detected in whites as well).
Tannin is best described as the sensation it leaves in your mouth, which can be bitter and dry, astringent, and gritty. Picture unsweetened tea that has been steeped too long. The dry, gritty feeling that overcomes your tongue is tannin. Tannins tend to soften and mellow out with age. When it comes to pairing wines high in tannin with food, here are a few things to consider.
Fat and protein reduce the perception of tannin. This is why red meat and young cabernet sauvignon go so well together. The protein and fat from the beef soften the mouth-drying tannins from the wine.
Salt also reduces the perception of tannin. Try melting salty blue cheese on a grilled steak and pairing it with a cabernet sauvignon or a tempranillo from Spain’s Rioja or Ribera del Duero regions. That element also reduces the otherwise noticeable tannins of the wine. It’s also just a delicious combination!
There are thousands of grape varieties that have been used to make wine. Jancis Robinson, one of the world’s renowned wine writers, wrote a book detailing 1,368 of them! And around 150 of those are commercially produced throughout the world.
VARIETY refers to a specific type of grape, like merlot or chardonnay.
VARIETAL is a wine produced from a grape variety. In most New World countries, you’ll see wines labeled by the name of the dominant grape in the bottle, such as cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, or chardonnay. In Old World countries, you’ll often see wines labeled by region, such as Bordeaux or Bourgogne.
For the purpose of this book, the grapes we have chosen to pair with these recipes are considered classic, international, or noble (noble grapes are grape varieties that are traditionally associated with the highest quality wines produced). They are grapes that have become household names and have international recognition and widespread consumer appeal. These are grapes that are widely planted and those you’re likely to encounter at most wine shops or supermarkets.
We also reference some popular regional wines and blends (like Rioja, Bordeaux, and Côtes du Rhône) because, although they may not be single-varietal wines, they are great for some of the dishes recommended here and worth seeking out. They are distinct from their counterparts in other parts of the world (tempranillo grown in the Rioja region of Spain is distinctly different from tempranillo grown in Oregon, for example). So there are times when we specify which region is best for a certain dish.
You can’t have a book about cuisine that is most popular during the summer months without mention of rosé, the quintessential summer drink. And since sparkling wine is our all-time favorite style of wine, it most certainly plays a central pairing role here as well.
Specific producers and vintages are not mentioned, but rather general regions, varietals, and styles that would pair with the recipes in this book.
It’s also important to understand that the same grapes grown in different parts of the world can be vastly different. Heck, grapes grown in the exact same region, one mile apart, can taste vastly different. So if we recommend a sauvignon blanc for a dish, understand it will taste different if you open one from New Zealand versus the Loire region of France or California. The recommendations are meant to be a base. These are general guidelines. There will always be exceptions to every rule, every grape, every region.
And while we live in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and are surrounded by incredible wines and diversity of regions, we won’t limit the pairings exclusively to those produced in the PNW (though they will be predominantly showcased throughout the book). There is a world of great wine out there, and we encourage you to explore it. A good wine shop can be an invaluable resource to finding the right bottles to pair with the recipes in this book.
Food and wine pairing is a different experience for everyone. These pairings may not always work based on your personal preferences. But hopefully you’ll develop the tools to understand what the recipe elements are and how they may react to your potential wines. You can then make adjustments to the food, based on your pairing.
Now let’s get the party started!
|
VARIETY/VARIETAL |
BODY |
CHARACTERISTICS |
|
Light to medium bodied |
Zesty, citrus, grapefruit, apricot, honeydew, pear |
|
|
Arneis |
Light to medium bodied |
Dry, floral, fruity, peach, apple, honey, apricot, nuts |
|
Medium to full bodied |
Wide range from crisp to full bodied, buttery, and creamy; range of apple, pear, citrus, pineapple, vanilla, caramel |
|
|
Light bodied |
Dry to off-dry, apple, lemon, pear |
|
|
Gewürztraminer |
Medium bodied |
Dry to sweet, fragrant and floral, lychee, apricot, pear, baking spice |
|
Medium bodied |
Herbaceous, apple, peach, citrus, minerals, white pepper |
|
|
Medium bodied |
Green apple, citrus, herbal, spicy, crisp |
|
|
Light bodied |
Crisp and fruity, pear, peach, apricot, apple, citrus, melon |
|
|
Light bodied |
Range from crisp and dry to sweet; apricot, apple, lemon, peach, nectarine, honeysuckle |
|
|
Light to medium bodied |
Crisp and fruity, red berry fruit and citrus |
|
|
Light bodied |
Herbaceous, grassy, citrus, grapefruit, pineapple, peach |
|
|
Light bodied |
Crisp, apple, pear, bread, yeast |
|
|
Torrontés |
Medium bodied |
Dry and aromatic, lemon, peach, flowers/rose petals |
|
Full bodied |
Floral, apricot, pear, peach, honeysuckle, fruity, creamy |
|
VARIETY/VARIETAL |
BODY |
CHARACTERISTICS |
|
Medium bodied |
Fruity, red berry, plum, dark cherry, high acid |
|
|
Medium to full bodied |
Plum, strawberry, black cherry, roasted bell pepper, pepper, herbaceous |
|
|
Full bodied |
Black currant, black cherry, blueberry, cassis, eucalyptus, oak, baking spice |
|
|
Carménère |
Medium bodied |
Green bell pepper, plum, raspberry, cherry, blackberry, spice, dark cocoa, leather |
|
Light bodied |
Bright, floral, fruity, raspberry, violet, black currant, tart cherry |
|
|
Medium bodied |
Wide range based on region; strawberry, raspberry, black cherry, tobacco, white pepper |
|
|
Medium to full bodied |
Dry and plump, dark fruit, smoky, black cherry, plum, raspberry, blackberry |
|
|
Medium to full bodied |
Blackberry, plum, chocolate, vanilla |
|
|
Full bodied |
Dark color, dry, rich, spicy, plum, blackberry, blueberry, black pepper, violet |
|
|
Petite sirah |
Full bodied |
Big, powerful, tannic, and dense; plum, blueberry, chocolate, black pepper, blackberry, licorice, spice |
|
Light to medium bodied |
Range from fruity to earthy; cherry, cranberry, strawberry, rose, rhubarb, mushroom (earth) |
|
|
Light to medium bodied |
Cherry, spice, fruity, acidic |
|
|
Full bodied |
Ground pepper, spice, blackberry, blueberry, plum, violet, meaty |
|
|
Full bodied |
Can be dry and big with high tannins and acidity; cherry, plum, tobacco, fig, vanilla, leather |
|
|
Full bodied |
Plum, jam, blackberry, black cherry, tobacco |
Regions or blends mentioned in this book: Beaujolais, Bordeaux and blends, Chianti, Rhône style (whites and reds), Rioja, Ribera del Duero
A winemaker once told us chardonnay is the chicken of wine. It’s a blank canvas. It takes on the flavors of where it’s grown (all over the world, both in cool and warm climates) and how it’s fermented (in a stainless-steel tank or in oak barrels). You can season it simply or go full throttle and let it age in a new oak barrel, imparting strong flavors. It’s a chameleon that changes in style from light and fruity to lean and austere to acidic to full bodied and rich, all depending on where it’s grown and how the winemaker chooses to express the grapes. For the chardonnay recommendations in this book, a note of style is included: aged in oak, unoaked, or specified by region (chardonnay from Chablis, for example, is minerally and austere, whereas chardonnay from California is fruity and rich).
Rosé wines are generally produced from red grapes. When grapes are pressed (before fermentation), the juice of nearly every single grape runs clear. The skins give wine its color. With red wines, the grapes are pressed and ferment with their skins attached. With white wines, the skins are removed before fermentation, leaving that pure juice and clear color. With rosé, one method of achieving this is through maceration. In this method of production, red grapes are pressed and can spend up to twenty-four hours soaking in the skins, imparting some color before the juice is separated from the skins.
Saignée, or “bleeding,” is another method whereby, similar to the process above, the grapes sit in their skins, allowing some the juice to “bleed” off into a new vat to produce a rosé. What remains of the red will be more concentrated and intense.
In some cases, rosé can be made by blending finished red and white wines together (this is common with rosé sparkling wine), but the best examples are produced using the maceration method above.
Rosé wines range from light, crisp, and bright to dark, intense, and deeply fruity. You may also see some labeled blush or white zinfandel, and these can be intensely sweet. The wines recommended in this book lean toward the dry style, as we find them more refreshing and better suited to our recipes.
Champagne is truly Mary’s favorite beverage in the world. But let’s be clear on one thing: true Champagne only comes from the Champagne region of northeast France. The word Champagne has become synonymous with all things sparkling wine. But there’s a big difference between the sparkling wine produced in this region of France and those produced elsewhere.
So what is Champagne then?
Champagne is produced by a process referred to as méthode traditionnelle (or méthode champenoise), when, after primary fermentation (the fermentation that converts sugar to alcohol), the wines go through a secondary fermentation in the bottle. The then-still wine is placed into a bottle, along with a small amount of yeast and sugar to initiate the second fermentation. This creates carbon dioxide, which in turn forms the bubbles, or effervescence, once the bottle is opened.
There is sparkling wine produced throughout the world in this same method, but only true Champagne comes from the Champagne region of France, where the wines are incredibly distinct from those made elsewhere.
Even within France, but outside of the Champagne region, you’ll find sparkling wines labeled Crémant, such as Crémant de Bourgogne (sparkling wines from Burgundy), Crémant de Loire (sparkling wines from the Loire region), and so forth. These are made using the méthode traditionnelle and can be quite delicious, but they are not Champagne.
In Spain you’ll find fruity and crisp sparkling wines labeled as Cava. These can be great values. Prosecco sparkling wines from Italy are produced in the Charmat method, where the bubbles are typically produced inside a large pressurized tank (versus inside the bottle).
Elsewhere, sparkling wines are commonly made by using the méthode traditionnelle throughout the world. A small number of wine producers are also carbonating the wines, which can help to keep costs down, but the quality of the bubbles are often sacrificed.
Sparkling wines are fantastic food-pairing wines and are recommended throughout the book. These wines aren’t just for celebrations or aperitifs. These can and should be dinner wines as well, and we hope you’re motivated to try some with your next whole smoked chicken.
