Best California Wines to Pair with Your Barbecue We love barbecue parties with our friends and families, and we are aware that a good pairing of wine and dishes take the event to an upper point from where they are. While pairing a wine with the food, our primary goal is to create an orchestra-like harmony between them. But between many different types and styles of California wines, it can be hard to pick the right one for you, especially if you're not familiar with the AVA’s or grape’s style. That’s why we choose the best California red wines that you can buy on Bottle Barn online wine store for your next barbecue party.
According to personal preferences, wine and food matching could be based on similarities of taste. However, whatever be your preference, contrast, or similarities, a balance must be established. Even if you forget the rules and don'ts, if you create the balance of tastes yourself, and none of them overpowers each other and become a solo superstar of the dinner, it is absolutely a good match.
According to texture, tannin is an important player that affects the pairing. Wines with high tannin could taste puckery and astringent at young ages; they create harmony when paired with the right food. Tannin in wine binds with the protein in food as it does with our saliva's proteins and creates the mouth-drying effect; this binding with food protein reduces the wine's astringency. Besides tannins' reaction with protein, they bind with fat too. This disrupts tannin's reaction with saliva and reduces the mouth-drying effect. These high-fat foods like a Rib-eye steak are known as tannin erasers. High tannic food may feel a metallic taste if paired with fish, which is one of the important rules of don'ts. Even alcohol and the body are distinct characteristics of wine; when it comes to food pairing, they can be discussed together since they have similar effects. The fullerbodied wines, which are usually high in alcohol, need to be paired with more complex dishes with intense sauces except for spicy ones. Like a light wine shouldn't be paired with a fatty and dark sauced meat, full-bodied wine shouldn't be paired with light food like a salad as well. We have selected the 5 best red California wines for you. All these selected wines are in stock and available to buy online at the Bottle Barn store in Santa Rosa or online wine store. 2019 SEBASTIANI ALEXANDER VALLEY CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery has been producing wine in Sonoma until 1904.This high-rated wine never comes without a medal from competitions in San Francisco, such as SF Chronicle Wine Competition. Even it is a big and bold wine, never overpower any barbecue dishes. It has black cherry, vanilla, spicy, little chocolate, and cassis flavors. 2019 SMITH & HOOK CENTRAL COAST CABERNET SAUVIGNON
The family-owned winery Hahn Vineyards was founded in the late 1970s and quickly gained worldwide fame. Even it’s smooth and fruit-forward with rounded tannins has complex flavors of cherry, chocolate, cassis, cedar, and thyme. 2017 BEAULIEU VINEYARD NAPA VALLEY CABERNET SAUVIGNON
According to Kelli A. White, the author of Napa Valley Then and Now, “Few wineries have played as critical a role in the history of American wines as Beaulieu Vineyard.” Unsurprisingly, their Cabernet Sauvignon is a cult but affordable wine in price with dark fruit notes such as ripe plum, blackberry, cherry, and toasty oak. 2019 CRUSE WINE CO. MONKEY JACKET RED WINE
This is our only blend selection on this list, it contains Valdigue, which is quite rare for California Blends, along with Carignan, Tannan, and Petite Syrah, which makes this wine perfect for pairing with barbecue. Its intense balanced exotic fruit and strawberry flavors with supple texture are quite amazing. 2018 RED CAR SONOMA COAST SYRAH
When you drink this wine, it’s hard to believe that their first vintage was only in 2000, which was 50 cases of Syrah. It has subtle spice and tannins, with aromas of raspberry, black pepper, and a nice long finish. Don’t get any risk, grab this bottle without any hesitation for your barbecue night.
Besides all, cooler than optimum drinking temperatures mask wines' aromas, increase astringency, tannin, and alcohol perception; these wines shouldn't be paired with spicy foods before they come to the right temperature. But also, room temperature could be very warm for these wines too, please consider cooling it at least until 60 ℉. If you liked our blog, you should also check our blog about “The Best Wines of Bottle Barn”