Reds for the grill and BBQ

I think it is safe to say that many barbecues across the city have been doing double duty of late when you consider that for some it was the only heat source for a week or so.

I have been reading Michael Pollan’s excellent new book, Cooked, and he makes it abundantly clear that there is a big difference between barbecued food (slow cooking involving lots of smoke and indirect heat) and grilled, the latter being the technique that most of us employ.

This is a consideration for wine, as well; barbecued meat likes wines — typically red — they reflect some of those smoky qualities. Grilling, on the other hand, tends to caramelize the natural sugars in meat, adding a dimension of sweetness.

Here are three reds suited to either — or both — of these techniques. Speri Saint Urbano Valpolicella 2009 —

$31 Valpolicella — the workhorse red wine of Italy’s Veneto region — is riding a wave of popularity these days, and for good reason. They are versatile food wines that work with myriad dishes thanks to their juicy, smoky cherry fruit and abundant acidity. Most are reasonably priced, although Speri is on the high side of the range as they are one of the regions finest producers. This is also a single vineyard wine produced from their Saint Urbano site in the hills of Fumane, which lends this wine a high degree of personality. In addition, the grapes are dried for 25 days prior to fermentation, followed by two years of aging that gives this wine an Amarone-like array of flavours. It would go well with pulled pork or a hardripened cheese, such as Reggiano or Manchego.

Plume Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 — $29

This Napa Valley wine has a Canadian connection, as the Stewart family — from the Okanagan’s Quail’s Gate Winery — has partnered with Napa’s Zepponi family (the original owners of ZD Winery) to create this reasonably priced Napa Cab. The wine spends 20 months in French oak — which is noticeable — and offers notes of blackberry and cherry fruit with hints of vanilla and eucalyptus. There is some Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot in the blend that adds a nice spice component to the mix. It would go well with grilled rib-eyes or beef tenderloin.

Lindes de Remelluri Rioja 2009 — $26

Here is the latest effort from Spanish wine guru Telmo Rodrigues, a new wine from his historic Remelluri family domaine in the Rioja. This blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano and Viura is sourced from two of the oldest vineyards in the Rioja (planted in limestone dominated soil), and the result is a serious red wine that will improve with a few years of bottle age. The limestone soils contribute a backbone of minerality to this wine in a core of bright smoky red fruits with firm, but ripe and polished, tannins. (Note: There is new research soon to be published that demonstrates once and for all that soils rich in some specific minerals mirror these attributes in the fruit. What a shock.) This wine calls for red meat, barbecued, grilled or braised.