Creators Syndicate
Once a year, I gather with four colleagues in Paso Robles, the heart of California’s vast Central Coast, to judge the culinary entries at the annual Winemakers’ Cookoff, which benefits the local Rotary’s scholarship fund.
This year’s event was the 14th, and it was Americana in its purest form. Smoke from a couple of dozen grills — in the Central Coast that means mobile Santa Maria barbecue pits — wafted through a crowd of more than 1,000, as a country-rock band played on a stage at the edge of a nearby lake.
The day had been a scorcher, with the mercury soaring to 108 degrees, and the dress for the evening event was decidedly cowboy casual. The rules of the Winemakers’ Cookoff are simple. Each entry’s core ingredient must be cooked on the grill, and a winery principal must be a member of the grill team.
My qualifications for judging are equally simple. I am an avid grillmeister and determined advocate for barbecue-friendly wines.
As such, there are three days a year that are sacred to my pursuit of the perfect grilling wines: Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day. As I pondered the merits of each savory dish that passed my lips at the Winemakers’ Cookoff, I couldn’t help but be reminded that Labor Day is near and I must soon get my own menu in order.
First, however, I must select the wines. This is my favorite part of grilling.
As you might imagine, the wine flowed at the Winemakers’ Cookoff. At the beginning, while the sun was still up, the thought of a bold red wine, any bold red wine, was anything but appealing.
I went looking for a well-chilled rose and found two that I enjoyed very much, the Eberle 2010 Syrah Rose and the Penman Springs 2010 Syrah Rose. Both were crisp and refreshing, completely dry, with plenty of spicy fruit. Both are from Paso Robles, of course, and might be difficult to source in your neighborhood.
Nevertheless, rose on a warm grilling day should be a staple for every grillmeister not predisposed to a cold beer, instead. A common myth about rose, or what many call "pink" wines, is that they are icky sweet and not compatible with savory cuisine.
There are rose wines that certainly fit that description, and there is nothing wrong with enjoying a sweet rose.
But dry rose is the better fit for most palates when paired with smoked meats, grilled seafood or spicy fare from the barby.
Depending on your location, you might find delicious rosado from Spain’s Navarra or Rioja regions or tasty rosato from Italy. And there is always rose from the south of France, regions such as Bandol or Tavel, where sipping rose on a muggy summer day is almost a religion.
No matter what I say about the virtues of rose, however, someone in the crowd will ask for a white wine, instead. I will be prepared.
I plan to offer up three levels of white wine: a steely, mineral-driven gruner veltliner from Zocker, made from grapes grown in California’s Edna Valley; a luscious albarino from Paco & Lola, a top-notch producer in Spain’s Rias Baixas region; and the full-bodied Chablis Saint-Martin from Domaine Laroche in Burgundy.
All three are award-winning wines that have impressed me in tastings over the course of this year. They also have the added benefit of being relatively low in alcohol (well below the seemingly standard 14.5 percent), and they’re value-priced at about $20 — a good price considering the quality in the bottle.
Again, depending upon where you live, you may not be able to obtain all or even any of those three, but style is more important than brand in the grilling experience. Avoid fat, oaky chardonnay. Go for whites that offer good complexity without being heavy or high in alcohol.
That’s where having a knowledgeable wine merchant becomes a tremendous asset. Don’t be afraid to ask what you might think is a dumb question. It’s your money.
My top red for this Labor Day is from Portugal. It is the 2007 Pombal do Vesuvio ($29), a dry red table wine from the Douro Valley that is complex and supple and built to handle the strong flavors of smoked meats and sausages from the grill. This wine is a blend of mostly touriga franca and touriga nacional, with a splash of tinta amarela.
It’s a beautiful wine with steak on the grill.
My second red pick for Labor Day is the juicy, suave 2010 Clos de Gilroy ($15) from Bonny Doon. This beautiful wine is 100 percent grenache, and it’s a triumph for winemaker Randall Grahm both in terms of quality and value. It is absolutely one of the finest wines in the world at the price.
Having nicely stocked the wine cellar for my Labor Day feast, the actual work over the grill becomes a labor of love.
Email comments to [email protected] and follow Robert Whitley on Twitter @wineguru.
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