Charcoal matches: What to drink at a barbecue

I reland has got serious about barbecuing; every second restaurant seems to offer pulled pork, ribs, chicken wings, sausage, brisket and all sorts of other char

grilled or smoked goodies. Burgers have gone gourmet and are now cooked on a proper grill alongside the dry-aged steaks.

However, we tend to ignore our own barbecues until the sun, or at least the summer, appears. You can keep cooking on it throughout the entire year – my brother-in-law uses his for the full 12 months, including the Christmas turkey – but despite my best intentions, until a few weeks ago I hadn’t touched mine since the autumn.

What wine to serve with your barbecue depends on what kind of food you are cooking.

Thankfully our home barbecuing has moved on a little from sausages and burgers, and can often include all sorts of meat, fish kebabs, whole salmon and other fish, and chargrilled or roasted vegetables too.

Generally speaking the smoky, caramelised flavours mean you need something with a little more punch than normal. Lighter wines such as Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Beaujolais (all great summer drinks) are probably best drunk before you start eating.

With barbecued salmon, prawns or other fishy dishes, a rich white wine such as a powerful Chardonnay, Viognier or Chenin Blanc makes a very good partner.

I am not a huge fan of rosé wines but this is certainly one occasion where they work really well with fish and white meats, as well as any accompanying salads. Besides, rosé and sun work perfectly together.

A robust red is the best option with red meats. If you plan on a sweet and spicy barbecue sauce or marinade, then something from the New World, with its ripe fruit is probably best. Otherwise France, Spain, Italy and Greece all offer full-bodied reds with plenty of flavour.

Beer goes very well with barbecued food, possibly better than wine. Those roasted flavours can match up very nicely with the toasted maltiness of some beers. Generally beer also handles heat and spice better than many wines. Take a similar tack to wine; serve lighter lagers (avoiding those mass-produced tasteless beers) and summer ales before eating or with lighter foods such as grilled fish and prawns. With pork and sausages, I would go for a lager or an amber ale.

Beer and sausages are made for each other. Cider goes really well with pork, and is hugely popular in the summer anyway. Lager goes well with spicy foods, but for a general all-purpose barbecue beer I would go for red or brown ale.

If you are having a large gang around and intend serving a variety of foods, you will need decent but well-priced wines and beers. I would go for a medium-bodied amber ale, a medium-bodied Chardonnay, Viognier or Chenin Blanc as a white wine, and a warm and hearty red such as an Australian Shiraz, a Californian Zinfandel, a Malbec from Argentina, or Garnacha from Spain. I would probably go for the delicious Côtes du Rhône below.

There will certainly be some non-drinkers at your barbecue so make sure to serve something interesting rather than the standard sweet fizzy drinks. You could serve jugs of iced water flavoured with fruit, herbs or cucumber. If you have the time, there may still be some elderflowers in bloom, so you could make your own cordial.

In recent weeks I have come across some great Irish-made syrups, kombuchas and cordial. They are all much more interesting than the commercial versions. I mentioned the America Apothecary and Rebel Foods before, but I have tasted some excellent cordials from The Wild Irish Foragers – keep an eye out in your local health food shop.

jwilson@irishtimes.com