Fantastic Barbecue Wines Part 1

14th June 2013

Yes it is finally here, catch it while you can...The Great British Summer is open for business!

As the nation rushes to stock up on summer salads, vegetables to skewer, beef burgers, sausages & any meat that can be char grilled to within an inch of its life, we ask what makes the perfect barbecue wine?

While there won't be one single wine to please everyone's palates, there are definitely a host of candidates that work wonderfully well in the warmer months when food and wine matching with the robust & often caramelised flavours of barbecue cuisine.

White & Rose wines are in their element in the summer months, refreshing & thirst quenching they make ideal lunch partners for lighter dishes or aperitifs. We have chosen a few of our favourites below ranging from the familiar to some more adventurous options;

A chilled sparkler is always a great party-starter! From the ever popular light, delicate bubbles of Prosecco, our Lunetta Prosecco is a fantastic example; fresh, fruity & literally effervescing with pear, apple & peach fruit flavours! To the refined mousse of Champagne, the Gallimard Cuvee Reserve Brut NV is one of our favourite & largely undiscovered boutique Champagnes, zesty citrus, orchard fruit & vanilla flavours wrapped up in elegant, creamy texture make this a cracking Champagne & amazing value to boot. For an extra boost of summer fruits add a splash of Creme de Cassis to your Champagne flute to make a Kir Royale or a measure of Creme de Peche to your Prosecco for a sophisticated Bellini.

If you like your whites refreshing & fruity try the El Tesoro Verdejo from Spain's Castile Leon wine region. Bright lemon, grapefruit & passion fruit flavours mingle on the fresh, soft palate supported by a lively acidity & a lip-smacking tang of sea salt in the finish. A perfect match for fresh flavourful summer salads including shellfish, feta & halloumi cheese. From Italy Gavi & Gavi di Gavi, produced from Cortese grapes grown in the Italian Piedmont region are fantastic crisp white wines; apple, pear, & lime flavours are layered with steely minerality making these great alternatives to Chablis & wonderful for barbecued foil wrapped fish, vegetable tartlets & creamy pasta salads.The Araldica Gavi La Luciana is a classic example of this wine, pure clean fruit flavours on a dry elegant palate.

For those who want to try something currenlty a la mode in the wine world look no further than Gruner Veltliner. Produced in Austria the Gruner Veltliner grape is extremely food friendly & refreshing, the majority is snapped up by the domestic market but it has been a fashionable choice in the U.K for a couple of years leading happily to greater availability on our shelves. The Petra Unger Q Gruner Veltliner is dry, complex & tangy with a couple of years bottle age the green fruit & white floral notes intensify becoming richer & rounder, the palate remains clean & firm while the aromatic spice still provides a lively kick in the finish. A great match for pork dishes, Thai or Asiatic spiced cuisine as well as robustly flavoured salads, grilled seafood & fish dishes.

Rose never tastes better than when consumed in the sunshine, the summer socialite of wines par excellence creates a nostalgic rose coloured glass effect wherever it is poured!

Rose is also a hugely versatile food wine, so often underestimated it pairs brilliantly with barbecue foods; charcuterie, fish, sausages, beef burgers, skewered vegetables, salads, in fact pretty much anything on offer on the barbecue table, including spicier options.

For dry rose lovers a Pinot Grigio blush is a failsafe choice, Il Sacchetto Pinot Grigio Blush is a delicate combination of freshly picked summer berry fruit flavours with hints of watermelon & peach. Or if you prefer something that bit deeper in flavour try the Torres Santa Digna Cabernet Sauvignon Rose from Chile for size; pale cherry red in colour showing intense strawberry, plum & grapefruit notes which cascade across the luscious palate while delicate hints of orange blossom & cassis linger in the finish. Who says Rose can't be complex!

Whether it's a chilled glass of fresh & fruity white or a crisp & delicate rose we think the key ingredients to pair with your BBQ wines are good food, good friends & fingers crossed good weather..but two out of three isn't bad!

Cheers & some great ideas for Barbecue reds will be following shortly.