Days of wine and snarlers

CHEERS: Barton on Wine

BY WARREN BARTON

The day of the typical Kiwi barbecue – blackened sausages (we called them snarlers), slabs of cheap steak, edged with yellow fat, a pile of buttered bread, a bottle of tomato sauce and a crate of beer – just doesn't cut it in this day and age. Not for most of us anyway.

We have, what some might say, become more civilised.

Now we're cookin' with gas, not charcoal and the barbie's got a lid.

The sausages (if you must) are pre-cooked. The steak is marinated, the chicken stuffed and stuck on a whirlamagig or diced and speared with a stick.

In fact there's no limit to what you can cook on a modern multi-burner barbecue. Or what you can toss in the salad.

We have even developed a taste for wine to go with this new-fangled food. And the best part is that it needn't be expensive; just meaty enough to stand up to the challenge of slightly burned offerings which owe their flavour as much to smoke as they do to heat, not to mention the spicy marinades and other fancy stuff we coat them with.

By inexpensive I mean wines that these days can sometimes be purchased for as little as $10 a bottle on special, or in multiples. And we are not just talking reds which are synonymous with barbecued food only because red meat was the only thing that once we cooked in this way. Not any more.

Chicken, fish, pork, anything is fair game and meats such as this demand white wines; wines that are, like the reds, fruity, juicy and have got a bit of oomph.

And it's okay (desirable sometimes) to chill the reds as well as the whites.

As for the wines. Don't give up on New Zealand, because there are some very cheap, good Kiwi wines out there, the result of wineries cutting prices to move stocks and to compete with Australian, Chilean, Spanish and other producers who are doing the same.

So the choice has never been better for wines that have a pedigree and have not simply been invented to take advantage of the situation.

Be adventurous, too.

Yes, shiraz/syrah is the obvious red choice, but what about cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, grenache, merlot, carmenere or blends of these and other varieties. All work well with this kind of food. And let's not forget the cheaper pinots and weightier roses.

Chardonnay is the versatile white for barbecued food, though you can still quite happily suck sauvignon and live dangerously with a sip of semillon or the likes.

Some under $15 wines (on special) that are worth trying:

Rolling 2007 Shiraz, $14.99: The colourful label on this beautifully berried Australian wine that's leavened with spice and licorice should create as much chatter as the wine itself.

Yalumba Y Series 2007 Viognier, $14.95: A full-blooded grapefruit and apricot viognier from the winery that pioneered this weightier white variety in Australia's Barossa Valley.

Peter Lehman 2006 Semillon, $14.99: Time in the bottle has encouraged the toasty, honeyed nuances that flesh out the savoury, citric flavours of this Australian favourite.

Mount Riley 2008 Marlborough Chardonnay, $12: Beautifully textured, sensibly oaked chardonnay that lets the tropical and stonefruit go to work on the tastebuds. Great buying.

Redmetal 2008 Merlot Franc, $14.99: Always good buying this rich, round and juicy Hawke's Bay red that's made to go with food, especially from the barbecue.

Coto de Hayas 2008 Garnarcha Syrah, $12.95: A blend of Grenache and syrah from Spain that is brimming with cherries and seasoned with spice and pepper. Effortless drinking.

Fox Creek 2007 Fox's Run Shiraz Cabernet, $13.99: A gutsy red that packs a punch from South Australia's McLaren Vale. Raspberries laced with chocolate and spice.

Penfolds 2006 Koonunga Hill Shiraz/Cabernet, $12: Another blended South Australian red that delivers plenty of flavour and intensity with a touch of spice.

- © Fairfax NZ News