Barbecued red meat and robustly-flavoured red wines are well matched. But where are we white wine drinkers in this mass of red? The lighter tasting flavours of white wines go well with barbecued fish, chicken, vegetable kebabs and salads. These foods will often have picked up a smoke-laced tang and so need wines made with more fruity-flavoured white grape varieties for a better match. Gooseberry tasting Sauvignon Blanc and the honey tones of a Colombard go well.
But why not go further with those honey tones by analysing the flavours and combine a barbecue with a home wine tasting? Buy yourself some large wine glasses (cheap supermarket ones will do) for capturing any wine aromas released when the wine is swirled prior to sniffing and tasting.
After you’ve made a note of the label (so you can remind yourself next week whether to buy the wine again) pour the wine. Give it a sniff so you can make a note of its aroma and then sip and taste. There are no right or wrong words for the aroma and taste – write down whatever you think the wine smells and tastes of even if that’s home-made custard or Persil washing up liquid.
And don’t forget to keep those white wines cold while the sun shines and the barbecue radiates heat. Stand your white wines in a mixture of water and icecubes, or for a quick and cheap solution, wrap your whites in newspaper soaked in water. As the water evaporates it takes the heat away, so keeping your wine cool for about half an hour.
PG Wine Reviews
Certo Italian Garganega
£3.99 Co-op (but not small bottle size of 50cl – compared to normal 75cl)
A light pineapple tasting white with extra lashings of lemon. A nice wine but a bit expensive when you calculate what you woud have paid if you’d paid for it at the more normal sized bottle of 75cl – it comes out at £6.
Makaraka New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc 2017
£4.99 Aldi
Classic Sauvignon Blanc gooseberry flavours.
Val de Loire French Chardonnay 2016
£5.99 Lidl
Lemon, butter, pear and melon – just what you’d expect from a French Chardonnay.
Brindle Ridge Romanian Chardonnay
£6.50 SPAR
Creamy pear and melon flavours with a slight fizz.
Vdv Spainish Verdejo organic
£8.99 Co-op
Another ligt and fruity white with flavours of peach, apple and banana.
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© Paula Goddard 2018 www.paulagoddard.com
