For a lot of people summertime means grilling. However, just because you are grilling does not mean that you have to forgo some great wine. This is especially important since grapes are able to trigger almost all 150 of our flavor sensations.
Matching Summer Wine With The Food You Grill
It is an art to be able to match wine with food. Thankfully there are some reliable guidelines that you can use to make things go better for you. For instance if you have strong tasting, hard chewing foods, you will want to have a full bodied wine such as Malvasia or California Chardonnay. On the other hand you will want a sweet wine for a sweet desert. Fatty foods go well with Rieslings, Sauvignon Blancs and most sparkling wine. Protein-rich dishes go well with Cabernets and Syrah.
In the summer we tend to grill some special foods though and special foods require special summer wine.
For instance if you are making shrimp skewers you will want to serve Pinot Grigio, which is light, crisp and fruity. This summer wine has mild flavors of citrus and peaches.
If you are making chicken you will want to use Shiraz because it is soft, rich and has red berry flavors that go well regardless of how you spice your chicken. On the other hand, if you are grilling turkey breast you should serve Chardonnay to really bring out the grilling flavors.
Barbecued ribs are also great in the summertime. The best summer wine to serve here is Syrah because it is rich and spicy due to it having been made with black plums.
For grilled pork chops you will want to serve Riesling. This is a soft and lightly sweet wine that has golden apple and peach flavors with just a hint of citrus.
New York strip steaks are very popular on the grill in the summer. A nice summer wine to go with these steaks is Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a black cherry fruit wine.
If you are going to cook salmon, then you should serve a fruity summer wine. Some good choices would be Grenache, Mourvdre, Syrah or Zinfandel.
For those of you who want to get really fancy and grill up some peaches, pears, pineapples or bananas brushed with oil and then caramelization on your grill, you will be serving up a very memorable treat. A good summer wine to go with this is M¨¦nage a Trois Ros¨¦ because it has a lot of strawberry and light cherry flavors. This makes it just sweet enough to match the grilled fruit.
