The best wines to pair with barbecue chicken are red wines and rose wines. The traditional wine pairing advice is to drink white wine with chicken, but it would be difficult to find a white wine that pairs well with most barbecue chicken. This helps reveal how that traditional advice can actually lead you astray. For the traditional sweet/savory BBQ sauce, there are a lot of good red wines and rose wines that will mesh really well. It's the nature of the BBQ sauce that should be your primary focus when choosing a wine to pair with; the meat should be secondary. Usually, given the robust nature of the BBQ sauces that people use, you'll want a robust wine that can stand up to the flavors. You should also consider your surroundings. If you are eating outside, which is common with barbecues, you may find your wine warming up more than usual. This will make lower alcohol wines a preferable choice because when wine warms, the alcohol becomes more pronounced and this will have a negative impact on both the wine and the food.

Unfortunately, the most robust reds that are good pairings with common BBQ sauces also tend to have higher alcohol content. BBQ Chicken and Wine: On the whole, the best wine to pair with most barbecued chicken is probably a Zinfandel because of its combination of fruity and smoky flavors. An "old vines" Zinfandel can work especially well here but there also some nice wines that mix Zinfandel with other varieties, like Petite Sirah. Smoky BBQ Chicken and Wine:If your barbecue sauce has a smokier flavor, strong reds like Malbec or Merlot will work. A well-chilled dry rose can also work well if you want a wine that is more refreshing, especially in warm weather. If the smoke flavor is strong and the sauce is very light, you can move to white wines like Chardonnay. Sweet BBQ Chicken and Wine: If your barbecue sauce has a sweeter flavor, you're better off with lighter, off-dry wine like a white zinfandel or another rose. Spicy BBQ Chicken and Wine: If your barbecue sauce is spicier, you'll want a sweeter wine that will stand up to the heat.

A Riesling or Gewürztraminer would be a good choice to pair with spicy barbecued chicken, but some people find that Sauvignon Blanc also works.You’ll Never Be Too Full for This French Dessert How to Make Gnocchi French? Crudité is the Perfect Way to Celebrate Spring and Summer Produce I Took a Bath in Maple Syrup Steak Frites Is the Perfect Date Food, According to Ludo Lefebvre Mushroom Hunting (and Cooking) Lessons from an Expert Forager Pot-au-Feu: The Ultimate French Comfort Food Top 10 Food Moments Every 'Girls' Fan Will Remember Potage Parmentier: The Perfect Potato and Leek Soup in Any Language 5 Reasons Why Pie Is the Best Grilled Chicken with Spiced Red-Pepper Paste Photo © John Kernick As always, when pairing wine with chicken, you want to consider the sauce or the marinade. Here, five approaches to take this summer when choosing wines to serve with grilled chicken.Simply seasoned grilled chicken is one of the most versatile foods and pairs well with a range of wines.

(Have a special bottle you want to open? Because of the char and smoky flavors that infuse the meat, you can go for wines that have seen some new oak, including Chardonnays and some California Pinot Noirs. If the chicken is rubbed with lots of herbs—like rosemary and thyme—rosé or lightly chilled, juicy Spanish Garnacha is a good bet.If your chicken is brushed with a sticky barbecue sauce, go for fruity, low-tannin reds, like Zinfandel or Primitivo (Italy’s version of Zinfandel). where can i buy dream line wineThese wines have deep berry flavors and an almost sweet fruit quality that’s great with these sauces. pictures of wine on the beachIf you tend to lean toward white wines, try a California rose, which also tends to have ripe, almost sweet fruit but enough body for this style of chicken.top 100 wine competition

Some barbecue sauces have lots of mustard, which can make the chicken better with whites or light reds. If the sauce is sweet, try an off-dry German or Oregon Riesling. (Sweet sauces tend to like sweet or very fruity wines.) If the sauce is tangier, try dry Austrian Riesling or zingy unoaked French Chardonnay from places like the Mâcon. If your marinade includes chiles, you can’t go wrong with serving a slightly off-dry Riesling. ice wine in bcThe heat of the marinade will make the wine taste less sweet. best wine in amsterdam netherlandsBonus: Rieslings tend to be low in alcohol, making them easy to drink on a hot summer day.best cheap german wineThese rich, spiced Indian and Middle Eastern-style marinades give grilled chicken a great browned crust. wine to get drunk off

That crust is especially good with full-bodied white wines, like California Chardonnay. If you want to go for something more unusual, look for Chenin Blanc (from places like Vouvray and Savennières in France) as well as Gewürztraminer or Pinot Gris. Kristin Donnelly is a former Food & Wine editor and author of the forthcoming The Modern Potluck (Clarkson Potter, 2016). She is also the cofounder of Stewart & Claire, an all-natural line of lip balms made in Brooklyn.wine and food coupon Related: More Grilled Chicken RecipesChicken RecipesSmart Wine Splurgesglass of wine full bottleWine at a barbecue seems a little out of place, kind of like the guest who shows up in knee-high leather boots when everyone lazing around the pool is in flip-flops. When we think of those brawny meats charring away on the grill, our immediate thought is to quench our thirst with a PBR from the ice chest.

Sometimes, we might be handed a disposable cup filled with a friend's latest sangria experiment, or their too-boozy whiskey lemonade. If there is a round of enthusiastic wine sipping happening on the patio while the potato salad is being made, typically that rapidly draining bottle will be rosé. There is perhaps no wine more emblematic of summer than this chilled, blush-colored beaut—make mine bone-dry, please. At the first glimmer of a hot day, along with the excitement of slipping into sundresses and shorts, comes the confident purchase of rosé. As soon as the nights grow cold again, it gets unfairly shunned, much like iced coffee, for warmer, toastier counterparts. I'll save the merits of sipping rosé on even the most frigid of January eves for another time. Right now I'd like to point out that while rosé will be welcome at any alfresco fête, at least if you are hanging out with the right people, there are plenty of other bottles, white and red alike, that should be opened with relish as the steak sizzles in the background.

Easy-to-sip Grüner Veltliner, Austria's star grape, snaps with grassy and apple notes. All those green overtones make it a good fit for any skewers stacked with vegetables, or a blackened ratatouille salad. You may not immediately think washing down eggplant or grilled zucchini with Chardonnay is a good thing. After all, so many of them are heavy-handed with the oak. Yet many surprise, unfurling lovely flavors of lime, cantaloupe, and pineapple. Extend the farmer's market theme by looking for a Chardonnay that retains fresh fruit flavors by doing time in stainless steel. Grüner Veltliner to try: Forstreiter 'Grooner' Grüner Veltliner 2012, Austria ($11); Thiery Weber Animo Grüner Veltliner 2012, Austria ($13). Chardonnay to try: Crew Wine Company Sawbuck Chardonnay 2012, California ($10); Corvidae Mirth Chardonnay, Washington ($12). Marrying a seafood dish with white wine has long been tradition. For a piece of grilled fish, naked save for a few squirts of lemon and a light brushing of olive oil, seek out something complementary that ratchets up flavor instead of masking it.

A meatier fish, like say, a swordfish steak, does need some backbone, and that's when fresh, fragrant Grillo—Sicily's little known but delicious white grape—gushing mango, should be sought out. Traditionally, Grillo was used for the production of Marsala, Italy's famous fortified wine. On its own, Grillo is full bodied and bright. When it gets paired with, say, a bit of oak-aged, floral Viognier, as in the case of one favorite, Dalila, it pops. If you're grilling up a side of salmon or other softer-flavored fish, think of Pinot Gris. Unlike its usually flabby, one-dimensional cousin Pinot Grigio, the ones from Oregon's Willamette Valley tend to have more gumption thanks to a lively blend of citrus and mineral flavors. Grillo to try: Stemmari Grillo/Viognier 'Dalila,' Sicily ($14); Stemmari Grillo "Baci Vivaci," Sicily ($10) Pinot Gris to try: Montinore Pinot Gris 2012, Oregon ($14); Elk Cove Vineyards 2013, Oregon ($19). Often deemed a blah substitute for the array of smoky meats favored on the grill, chicken can be its most flavorful when seared over coals.

While an everyday roast chicken goes well with, say, a delicate Cabernet Franc or Pinot Noir, a bird's time on the grill provides intriguing contrast to easy-drinking whites. A yeasty Verdelho from Portugal, with aromatic peach and pear flavors, will do the trick. Typically a base for the country's impressive fortified wines, Verdelho now spawns some well-balanced whites wherein creaminess is offset by racy acidity. Another Portuguese alternative: lighter and leaner Vinho Verde—unfussy, floral and a killer value. A Greek Moschofilero is another good bet. Walk into any of those blue-and-white tavernas slinging tzatziki, and hunched over plates of chicken souvlaki you will find many a diner sipping the white wine. Moschofilero, from Greece's Peloponnese, is fruity and floral, crackling with orange and grapefruit flavors. Pleasant acidity makes you happy to have it in your glass all dinner long. Verdelho and Vinho Verde to try: Herdade do Esporao Verdelho 2013, Portugal ($10);

Casa de Vilacethino Brazao Vinho Verde 2013 ($9). Moschofilero to try: Semeli 'Mountain Sun White' 2012, Greece ($12); Troupis Fiteri Moschofilero 2012, Greece ($12). At first, a hearty red seems like a boon with grilled sausage. But given the meaty coils' predilection for spice and snap, Riesling—especially a dry Alsatian—provides a rush of acidity that enlivens like no other. Just think of all the sauerkraut-laden choucroute these German-speaking French eat with their Riesling day after day. Red is not verboten, of course. Just consider one that is soft and lush, devoid of overpowering tannins, like those from Jura. Sommeliers from around the country have an obsession with the wines from this burgeoning region in eastern France for a reason. Sausage of the lamb variety, say, a zesty Moroccan merguez, is an ideal match for Jura's light, bright Poulsard grape. Riesling to try: Domaines Schlumberger Riesling Les Princes Abbés, 2011, France ($15); Domaine Zind-Humbrecht Riesling 2012, France ($24)

Poulsard to try: Bodines Arbois Poulsard, 2011, France ($24); Domaine Rolet Poulsard 2011 ($19) No two burgers are made alike. Of course there is the basic version of the all-beef patty—that's going to get slid into a squishy Martin's potato roll and topped with cheese, (fresh-from-the-garden) tomatoes, and hopefully a smattering of raw onions and pickles. But your pals may have more gourmet hankerings, desiring to pile their burgers with a heady blue cheese or the sweet mango chutney they fell for at the Indian grocery. These tweaks set the agenda for what should be in your glass. In general, though, burgers make a fine pair with Cru Beaujolais. Now, forget everything you think you know about the B word. Real Beaujolais is decidedly not Beaujolais Nouveau, an annual marketing gimmick meant for chugging and forgetting about until the following fall. Cru Beaujolais is a celebration of the thin-skinned Gamay grape that hails from France's south-of-Burgundy region of the same name.

It is simultaneously earthy and bursting with red fruit, exactly what you want to wash down a pink-in-the-middle, protein-packed sphere redolent of charcoal. Cru Beaujolais is traditionally served slightly chilled, making it an even more appealing summer sip. Cru Beaujolais to try: Nicole Chanrion Côte-de-Brouilly 2012, France ($22); Domaine Diochon Moulin-à-Vent 2012, France ($21). Because not all diners are robust carnivores, you may be grilling up a turkey or veggie burger. The former does not demand a red, nor is a white the only option. This is when the season's ubiquitous rosé should make a cameo, adding much-needed fruity zing. If it's a veggie burger you're throwing on the grill, tangy Sauvignon Blanc, with its layers of puckering citrus, will invigorate a medley of veggies. Rosé to try: Bedell Cellars Taste Rosé 2012, Long Island ($25); Bodegas Nekeas Vega Sindoa Rosado, Spain ($9). Sauvignon Blanc to try: Mapuche Sauvignon Blanc 2013, Chile ($10); Uppercut Sauvignon Blanc, California ($12).

It's a familiar adage, one oft-repeated because it's true: steak and red wine make the best of buddies. It does not mean, however, that the red in question needs to be a powerful Cabernet Sauvignon. Not only does that varietal instantly conjure a roaring fireplace—which has no place in summertime daydreams—buying a good bottle is often a pricey investment. Remember, you're at a cookout eating off paper plates, not a white tablecloth steakhouse. This is a good opportunity, then, to savor the depth of more offbeat gems. Chilean Carménère, filled with violet and red cherry notes, is a suitable—and much more affordable—alternative to cut through a fatty, glistening steak. Or, reach for a bottle of Tempranillo. Spain's thick-skinned indigenous grape yields a ruby liquid both high on tannins and acid. The combination of earth and spice adds luster to each morsel of that melt-in-your-mouth meat. Carménère to try: Baron Philippe de Rothschild 'Anderra' Carménère 2012, Chile ($10);