BBQ & Wine

Have you got that barbecue fired up for the season yet?  It took us a while, but the temperatures are finally warming up and the smell of barbecue is in the air.  I love to barbecue and do it all winter long.  But for my seasonal barbecue loving friends, this blog is for you.  In my opinion, nothing goes with barbecue food quite like wine.

It’s always important that when barbecuing, the job is much more fun if you have a glass of wine with it.  I never barbecue without wine.  Kind of an unwritten rule in my house.   And if it’s beef or pork you are thinking of grilling this weekend, have I got a new wine for you to try.

I love good wine, I love great wine.  But I also love finding very good wines at great prices.  And for this week, this interesting bottle takes the prize.   I bought this wine to share with friends ladt Friday night.  The Wine Men of Gotham not only sparked a great conversation because of the label and the name, people loved it once they tried it.  A  Shiraz Grenache blend out of Australia, Gotham Wines is fairly new, only being around since 2004.  This wine is only $15 a bottle here in Nova Scotia, and worth every penny.  Named after the city of Gotham, because like Gotham the wine is dark, rich, complex and mysterious.  Worth a try I think for $15.

I have to share a great white wine as well for my white wine loving friends and readers.  I understand when looking for wine pairings with BBQ food, many of the choices are red.   Barbecue food & wine pairings are not just for red wine lovers.  There is a tremendous amount of white wine that just loves the grill.

Here’s one of my favorite white wines for grilled food, Conundrum.  It’s hard to believe this wine has been around for 25 years, and I only discovered it about 4 years ago.  It was started by the guy who founded Caymus vineyards, and anyone who knows Caymus knows it’s quality wine.  And what Charlie Wagner used to do is blend wines at the dinner table to go with whatever they were eating!  Can you imagine?  Apparently no one blended wines back in 1972, when Charlie Wagner started doing it, so this was pretty radical.  This wine brings forward delicious flavors of Hawaiian tropical fruit and pear, some of the wine is aged in stainless steel and some of the wine is aged for 10 months in oak.  This leaves a soft palate, but the oak doesn’t overpower the wine.

And now for my wine of the week….

Here is my buddy Mike holding up my wine of the week, the Luzon Crianza.  This is from one of the hottest new wineries in Spain and the prices are still fantastic.  This bottle was $22 and is a blend of 4 grapes, Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Merlot.  This wine saw between 15 and 20 days on the skins, and this produced a rich flavorful wine that is full-bodied and has lots of character.  I found it to have a really nice plush texture on the palate and with hints of balsamic, you can understand how it would go great with grilled meat.   A great wine to go with hearty stews and of course barbecued meat.

Well that’s it for me, I hope you have a chance to do some grilling and enjoy a nice new wine with it.  Have a great week everyone, and till next week, Cheers

Darlene