The weather this past week has caused thoughts of winter to recede like early morning dreams into the distance of memory. Attention turns once again to the backyard, the garden, and the barbeque. It’s just too irresistible to dust it off and fire it up, warding off the last of the season’s chill with its glowing embers. Its time again to consider which wines you’ll be drinking alongside your favorite grilled fish, flesh and vegetables.

Of all cooking methods, grilling has the greatest impact on flavour intensity. There’s nothing subtle about the charred, smoky taste that permeates all things cooked over flames, rendered even more intense when using an old school charcoal barbeque. Factor in the typically robust marinades and sauces that accompany barbequed foods, often with their own bit of heat, and the net result is big flavour requiring zesty or bold wines to go toe-to-toe. Here are a few suggestions to whet your appetite:

Fish

There are two main directions you can go with fish. One successful strategy is to pick a wine that’s the equivalent of the ubiquitous squeeze of lemon: acidity is a great enhancer, bringing flavours into greater focus. Crisp dry whites work the same magic as lemons, bringing life to whatever they accompany. Look for cool climate whites (think pine trees, not palm trees surrounding the vineyards) from grapes like riesling, sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, chenin blanc or chardonnay (unoaked). For more adventurous drinking, try albariño from northern Spain, Vinho Verde from northern Portugal, grüner veltliner from Austria, assyrtiko from Greece, semillon from the Hunter Valley (Australia), or falanghina or vermentino from Italy.

Another strategy is to match the flavour intensity of grilled fish. Barrel aged whites, with their intriguing smoky, caramelized edge, do a nice job.  The classics include of course barrel fermented chardonnay from just about everywhere, but look also for rich and creamy southern Rhône whites, chenin blanc from South Africa, dry furmint from Hungary, Bordeaux style semillon-sauvignon blends, white Rioja or white blends from the Alentejo in Portugal.

Don’t neglect reds altogether, especially if you’re grilling fish like salmon or tuna. Zesty red wines with low tannins (i.e. not overly astringent) can be perfect foils. Try grapes like pinot noir, gamay, barbera or dolcetto, or for more far-out drinking experiences, try mencía, bonarda, frappato, nerello mascalese, trousseau, lagrein, schioppettino, or zwiegelt.

Beef & Lamb

There’s nothing quite like the taste of denatured protein — which is what you get when you grill red meat – it’s pure, savoury, umami goodness. You’re immediately thinking big red to match, and you’d be right. Big red wines have intense flavour and an abundance of tannins, the molecules that cause a mouth-puckering/drying sensation. But the fat, protein and especially the salt used to flavour red meat all conspire to reduce that astringency, rendering the texture smoother and more pleasing, The match also allows the savoury and fruity elements, plus the barrel ageing notes of the wine, to synergize with the umami-rich taste of protein.

Traditionalists would serve pinot noir with beef and cabernet sauvignon (and blends) with lamb, but feel free to break with tradition: rich, full-bodied new world pinot noir can easily take on the gamey flavours of lamb, while well-aged cabernet is brilliant with well-aged beef. There is an entire world outside the box, too: the wines of Brunello, Barolo, Amarone, The northern Rhône, Priorat, Ribera Del Duero, Douro and Dão come to mind, as do the grapes sagrantino, shiraz/syrah, tannat, mourvèdre, malbec, montepulciano and carignan, among many possibilities.

Back Ribs & Spicy Sausages

The main flavour element in back ribs, beyond the char of the grill, is the intense sweet-sour-spicy triumvirate of the bbq sauce in which they are smothered. Don’t hold back here; you’ll need big rich, intensely fruity wines to match. The New World, with its abundant sunshine and ripe, fruit forward style wines, has much to offer. Look for California zinfandel, merlot and syrah, Argentine malbec, Chilean cabernet or Aussie grenache and shiraz, the bigger and bolder the better. The sweet impression given by these high alcohol, fruity wines will meet the sweetness of bbq sauce head to head, which otherwise makes dryer, leaner style reds come across as overly tart and astringent.

The same wines apply to spicy sausages: here the sweet fruit impression will tame the heat of the chilies. You’ll still get a notable burning sensation from the combination of high alcohol and spice, but hey, that’s why you’re eating spicy sausage in the first place, no?

Chicken & Pork

The ‘white meats’ are the great crossover proteins of the bbq world. Depending on the mix of herbs and spices you use to enhance flavours, these meats can work with either full-bodied, mellow whites or zesty, lighter style reds. Unctuous Alsatian-style pinot gris is a personal favorite: the grape’s naturally smoky-mineral tinge mingles happily with crispy chicken skin or sumptuous pork fat, while underlying acidity readies the palate for the next bite.

The same lighter reds as indicated for fish apply equally here. And remember to keep an ice bucket or chiller on hand to keep these wines at around 14-16ºC, the ideal, refreshing serving temperature for lighter reds.

Vegetables

Vegetables are considered tough matches for wine — how often does a chef mix fruit (the dominant flavour of wine) with veg in a dish? Rarely. But the barbeque does a wonderful thing, making antagonistic vegetables into wine-friendly foods. Asparagus for example is notoriously challenging for wine, indeed near impossible when steamed or boiled. But when the spears are thrown on the fire, they’re suddenly eminently match-able. I like to take the squeeze of lemon approach here as well, letting crisp, dry whites make the vegetable sing. And since vegetables are often dressed with fragrant resinous herbs like rosemary, thyme or oregano, wines with their own dash of herbal flavour —sauvignon blanc for example — harmonize nicely.

And finally, if your serving up the mixed grill with a little of all of the above, the classic go-to choice is rosé. I like the dry and savoury style that was perfected in southern France, thought the growing popularity of rose worldwide means that there are dozens of options around. For recommendations on specifics wines, see this week’s picks, and find hundreds more at www.johnswines.com.

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John Szabo is a master sommelier and wine writer for Toronto Standard. Follow his tweets here: @johnszabo.

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