Wine and food pairing Ⅷ:barbecue

The smoke and spice and often-sweet sauces that make barbecue special aren't really friendly to your finest wines, which is why cold beer in longneck bottles or gigantic glasses of freshly brewed iced tea are called for when you're chowing down on barbecue.

If you want to bring your BBQ dinner uptown with a glass of wine, though, this is the time to turn to the simpler, fruity and quaffable wines: Zinfandel is a natural match, a quintessentially American wine with a traditional American food. Other good barbecue choices include Petite Sirah and Beaujolais, either the French original or the U.S. Gamay. As reader David Seidner notes below, Australian Shiraz (or Grenache) is another outstanding barbecue wine.

Additions from readers:

My favorite: a young overly fruity (almost sweet tasting) Aussie shiraz. The Rosemount Diamond label is my "house" b-b-q drink, but I've had others with equally pleasing results. --David Seidner

Chianti classico often makes an excellent match and is de rigueur with Il Fiorentina (T-bone steak rubbed with crushed black pepper, grilled and brushed with olive oil). Like the big, fruity reds you others mention, Argentine malbec and tannat and California mourvedre (aka mataro) suit barbecued beef and pork to a T. Tempranillo-based wines, such as Rioja and Ribera del Duero, are traditional with grilled lamb chops. Bandol is a treat with simply grilled meats, including white meats like rabbit. And substantial dry rosés work nicely with barbecued chicken, hot and cold. --Craig Schweickert