Pairing · barbecue, grilled meat
What wine goes with a barbecue?
Rosé, clairet, or a young Médoc served cool at 14 °C. A barbecue doesn't call for a great wine, it calls for a cold wine, in quantity, that doesn't suffer from being drunk out of a plastic cup. The selector below puts the meal together; the page then says how much to plan for 30 people in July, and how to keep it cold in a garden.
Build the meal around the grill
The barbecue is preset as the main course. Change the starter, the cheese and the dessert: each line gives a family of appellations, a colour, an age and a price range, with no brand names.
Three wines for the fire
Bordeaux rosé
Dry, fruity, unpretentious, at 6 °C. It is the most drunk wine of the summer and the one people most often forget to chill. €6 to €10.
Bordeaux clairet
Between rosé and red: a very pale red, barely tannic, macerated for one night. Served cool, it stands up to meat and doesn't tire the palate. It is the Bordeaux speciality guests have never heard of and keep asking for. €7 to €11.
Young Médoc or Bordeaux Supérieur, served at 14 °C
Two or three years old, fruit, tannins still supple. Ten minutes in the ice tub before serving: a red at 14 °C tastes lively, the same wine at 24 °C tastes alcoholic. €8 to €14.
How many bottles for 30 people in July
A barbecue goes on. It starts with an aperitif, carries on at the table for two hours, and ends when the fire goes out. Over four hours, with 80% drinkers, people drink as they would at a sit-down meal followed by an evening: three glasses at the table then half a glass an hour. For 30 people, that comes to around 20 bottles, half of them rosé and clairet.
| Guests | Rosé and clairet | Chilled red | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 6 | 6 | 12 |
| 30 | 12 | 6 to 12 | 18 to 24 |
| 60 | 24 | 18 | 42 |
| 100 | 36 | 30 | 66 |
Rounded up to the case of 6, 10% margin. Under twenty people, that is two cases: go to your local wine shop. For an exact figure for your numbers and your timing, the general calculator counts moment by moment.
The bag-in-box belongs here
At a barbecue, wine is served in plastic cups, near the fire, by people with greasy hands. That is exactly where the bag-in-box wins: a tap, no cork, no breakage, the wine protected from the air for six weeks once opened. A 5-litre bag-in-box replaces almost seven bottles and costs a quarter less. For the rosé and the clairet it is the right choice; for the red you want to serve cool in bottles on the table, keep bottles. The comparison tool on the bag-in-box or bottle page prices both for your volume.
Keeping it cold in a garden in high summer
The real problem at a barbecue is not the wine, it is the temperature. A bottle of rosé left in the shade at 30 °C is undrinkable within a quarter of an hour. You need a tub, ice, water and a handful of salt, and the bottles stay in it between servings. For 20 bottles, a 60-litre tub and 8 kilos of ice will last the afternoon. The detail by number of bottles is on the chilling 50 bottles fast page. The red also gets ten minutes in the tub: served at 14 °C, nobody notices it; served at 24 °C, everyone does.
The classic mistakes
- Buying a great wine for the grill. Smoke, charcoal and ketchup wipe out everything that cost money. Keep the classified growth for a sit-down meal, another day.
- Forgetting that the red must be cool too. A Bordeaux at garden temperature in July is at 26 °C. Nobody wants it. Ten minutes in the ice.
- Planning as much red as rosé. At a barbecue, rosé goes twice as fast. The surplus red ends up in the garage, and unopened cases are not taken back.
- Neglecting water. In the sun, people drink water first. A litre a head, cold, cuts wine consumption and avoids difficult ends to the day.
For a wedding barbecue or a next-day brunch, the full menu is put together on the food and wine pairing for a wedding menu page. For a giant paella or a Spanish evening, see what wine with paella.
What red wine goes with a barbecue?
A young, fruity, low-tannin red served at 14 °C: Bordeaux Supérieur, a two- or three-year-old Médoc, or a clairet if you want to serve it really cool. No great wine: the smoke and the sauces cover it.
What is clairet?
A very pale red from Bordeaux, macerated for just one night, almost without tannins, served cool. It is the ancestor of the English claret. It has the colour of a dark rosé and the body of a light red: the grilled-meat wine par excellence, and almost nobody knows it outside the Gironde.
Rosé or red for a barbecue?
Both, roughly half and half, with the rosé going a little faster if it is hot. A clairet lets you buy a single wine that does both. Dry white has its place at the aperitif and with grilled fish.
How many bottles of rosé for 30 people?
A dozen over a four-hour afternoon with 80% drinkers, plus six to twelve of chilled red. Two cases of rosé, one or two of red. In bag-in-box, two 5-litre boxes of rosé replace the two cases and cost less.