You can grill when it’s warm, you can grill when it’s snowing outside, but whatever the weather, if I’m coming over, I’m going to want you to grill one of my lifelong favorites – barbeque. I just love the smell of hot meat, the messiness of sauce dripping down my chin and hands, and a cool glass in my hand. The thing about barbeque is that there are at least four distinctly different variations in the US.  If you are a South Carolinian bbq fan, your mouth waters remembering the tart tang of mustard/ vinegar sauce on pork. If you are from further west, your taste buds recall that thin, mildly sweet tomato sauce on beef. Up north, you’ll find classic vinegar and pepper. But down in Texas, my motherland, it is all smoke, tomatoes and chilies. I'll be recommending wines to accompany that smoky, tasty fare. BBQ and wine? You're joking?

Regardless of where you are, most of you are probably thinking, “Yeah, that’s all fine and good, but I only drink cold beer with my bbq, especially when I’m in my old recliner.”  I’d like to offer you an alternative for those occasions with guests or family.  Why not try that bbq meal with wine?  It’ll class up the picnic in no time and do something beer just can’t – intensify the flavors of the meal. So, with four very different “typical” bbq sauces around, it gets tricky for me to recommend just one wine. To help you toward success, keep these things in mind:

•  Think bold and gulpable. Any wine for this type of fare should be both. They should be assertive wines, just like you’re assertive as you wield about your grilling tongs like a caveman.  Look for full-bodied wines with plenty of fruit extract, spice, and pepper and a minimum alcohol content of 13% (which will help keep a good acidity).  Moreover, they should be gulpable, which means smooth, tasty, easy to drink. Wines for barbecue should be able to support the succulence of the meat brought out by the slow cooking and shouldn’t be overwhelmed by or compete with the tangy and sweetness of the sauce. 
  
• Have a selection of libation. Let’s be honest, not everyone is going to buy into the wine with barbeque concept. So buy a case of beer for your cousin Bill who doesn’t want to expand his horizons, but have a few wines around, as well, to show your other guests your savvy.
  
• Chill the wine as you chill out. No wine should be served warm, even reds. If it's hot out, you might want to stick the bottle in the fridge for a fifteen minutes. With a warm red, you’ll experience mostly the heat of the alcohol and you lose the great flavors. We are going for a temperature of between 61-64°F.

Woodbridge wines have a cool, free toy you can order from their website to help you with wine bbq pairings and tips.  Check it out at:  http://www.woodbridgewines.com/getWheel.asp

As your own personal, sexy sommelier, I’ll give you my selections:

• My choice to pair with South Carolinian mustard sauce is a low-alcohol, fruity white like the grape varieties Riesling or Gewürztraminer, which will both frame and balance the tangy flavors of the sauce.  Go for a bottle from the US, like California, Washinton State, Virginia or yes, New York, or branch out and try a German Spatlese or Auslese (off dry and medium dry).  
• For the thinner red tomato sauces of Kansas City, Cincinnati and St. Louis, give wines from the Côtes du Rhône or the Côtes du Rhône Villages from the South of France a taste.  Their lighter body and slightly fruiter palate will balance nicely with the Midwestern sauce.
• A vinegar/ pepper sauce calls for the grape variety known as Shiraz, or Syrah (it’s the same grape, different way of saying it).  Look for words like “medium-bodied”, “peppery aromas” and “ripe fruit” on the wine label description.  I would aim for Syrah wines produced in California or the friendly Shiraz/ Viognier blends from Australia. 
• Rioja, a region in Spain, is a great choice for the Texas tomato-based barbeque.  With a medium-weight, the flavors are spicy and fruity. The word “Crianza” on the bottle means you’ll get a young wine that may better fit your budget and your meal. 

None of these wines should set you back more than $15 a bottle. BBQ is not haute cuisine, and the wine that goes with it doesn’t need to be a cellar selection. But remember, the Better Guy knows that wine better complements bbg more than beer, which offers little to the flavor of the sauce and really, only serves to make you feel fuller. And who to get full on carbonation when you really want to throw back as much bbq as your tummy can handle?  Now, let’s get out there and have a finger-licking, wine-swilling good time by the grill, big man.