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Together At Last: Pairing Red Meat With White Wines

Forget about those hard-and-fast rules about red wine with red meat. Summer is meant to be more laid-back, so consider fit-to-betried white wine pairings for grilled beef, duck, lamb and venison.

Red wine and red meat are like celery and blue cheese, or peanut butter and jelly. They’re together all the time to the point that we may forget they don’t have an exclusive relationship. While summer is a season when our tables see plenty of grilled red meat, it isn’t necessarily the time we want to drink a rich red wine. As long as you’re choosing the right wine—paying attention to qualities like weight, intensity and acidity—white wines can work just as well as red wine with these dishes. To make life easier, we’ve chosen our pairings from the Vintages Essentials Collection. These are Vintages wines in a range of prices and classic styles that are always available in LCBO stores and guaranteed to please. There are now 130 wines in the Collection, each one chosen for value and because it’s a best-in-class favourite. Read on to see how our picks from the list can make a refreshing alternative—and killer pairing—for your summertime grilling game!


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Sauvignon Blanc with Lamb

Sauvignon Blancs have bright fruit and acid to complement the salad, while cutting through the richness of the buttery meat at the same time. Also, interestingly, both lamb and Sauvignon Blanc contain aromatic compounds called pyrazines, which give the grape its distinct grassy, herbal and bell pepper notes. This helps to explain why lamb works well with these sorts of flavours, making this wine almost like a condiment for the dish as much as a pairing. Lamb is a popular protein in both the Loire and New Zealand, sheep outnumbering people six to one in the latter, so this can be looked at as an example of “What Grows Together Goes Together.”

Get this Grilled Lamb Chops with Tomato White Bean Salad & Anchovy Butter recipe

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Henri Bourgeois Les Baronnes Sancerre VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

For 10 generations, the name “Henri Bourgeois” has been synonymous with passionate precision winemaking. Here, the clay and limestone ridges of Chavignol evoke classic grassiness, gooseberry, grapefruit and mineral tones.

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Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

From the Southern Valleys of Malborough, Dog Point is New Zealand’s largest certified organic vineyard, producing wines like this fresh and vibrant Sauvignon Blanc full of tropical fruit, sea mist, and flinty minerality.




Chardonnay with Duck

Look to the density and weight of Chardonnay for this dish. It can work with a bolder bird like duck, and the acid level is high enough to stand up to the richness of fat in the duck’s skin. The toasty note from restrained use of new oak subtly reinforces the flavours in the smoky rub, and the inherent peachy stone-fruit notes in the wine resonate with the peach barbecue sauce.

Try this Smoky Grilled Duck Breast with Peach Barbeque Sauce recipe


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Antinori Castello della Sala Bramìto Chardonnay VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

Produced by Antinori (of Tuscany fame), this Chardonnay comes from high-altitude vineyards in Umbria. It’s fresh, elegant and impressive, with nuts, yellow plum, lees, toast and vanilla aromas and a characterful minerality.

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Mission Hill Reserve Chardonnay VQA VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

If you haven’t yet experienced the dazzling wines of B.C.’s Okanagan Valley, this is a striking introduction. A juicy Chardonnay loaded with flavours of fresh fig, honeydew melon, vanilla, tobacco and ripe pear.





Gewürztraminer & Torrontés with Venison

Game meat like venison would usually call for something rich and red, with elevated alcohol and tannin. The spice level in this recipe would clash with a lot of those wines. The key here is to find a wine to tame the heat and match the spiciness, with enough depth of flavour to avoid getting lost beside the meat. Gewürztraminer is German for “spice traminer,” as the grape is known for its aromatic and spicy character. Torrontés, a relative to Gewürztraminer has similar aromatics. Both show spicy intensity and tropical fruit notes, which can tame any gaminess in the venison, as well as match the bold seasoning. The residual sweetness in the Gewürz’ also makes it a wonderful foil for the heat from the chilies and cayenne.

Get this Spicy Venison Kofta recipe

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Pierre Sparr Gewürztraminer VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

This is a spicy, intense wine, with energetic aromas and flavours. It’s structured and textured, showing brightly articulated rose, lychee, yellow pear, honeydew melon and nutmeg notes.

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Susana Balbo Crios Torrontés VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

Susana Balbo has been called the “Evita of Wine” and the “Queen of Torrontés.” Her Crios Torrontés (Argentina’s signature grape) is floral and fruity with apple blossom, peach, honey, pear and honeydew melon.




Champagne with Beef

Prized for its deep and concentrated flavour, dry-aged beef is a meat that definitely has a type when it comes to its beverage companion. You may think there's no hope of pairing something white with this sort of steak but…. the old adage that Champagne goes with everything can be applied in this situation. Vintage Champagne has enough body and heft to stand up to red meat, while the acidity and carbonation counterbalance the rich, fatty nature of the beef. On top of that, mushrooms and yeast are both types of fungi, so the yeasty, savoury notes from the Champagne’s extended lees aging create a delicious synergy with the deep, natural umami flavour in the grilled maitakes.

Make this Grilled Dry-Aged Striploin with Maitake Mushrooms & Green Sauce recipe


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Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin Brut Vintage Champagne VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

An iconoclast like Veuve Clicquot herself, this rich and racy bubbly has notes of flowers, toast, lemon, nuts and spice. A great food Champagne.

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Louis Roederer Collection Brut Premier Champagne VINTAGES ESSENTIALS

A complex and weighty NV Champagne with aromas of brioche, yeast, and green apple. This wine's palate has a creamy texture and high acid, with flavours mixed citrus, candied ginger, and stone fruit.