You just can’t make up your mind. Red wine? White wine? Decisions, decisions. It is still summer. Maybe you want a crisp refreshing white. Labor Day weekend is certainly not too late for a nice white wine. Maybe some shrimp on the grill? OK. White.
On the other hand, fall is coming. A grilled steak would be pretty good this weekend. You correctly believe a red with some backbone would be a perfect wine with that steak. OK. Red.
Stop dithering. You can have your steak and eat shrimp, too. As long as you’re going to fire up the grill, make a grilled shrimp appetizer with a nice marinated flat-iron steak as the main course. And I have just the wines for you, and they are both great values.
Sauvignon Blanc is perfect with grilled shrimp. There are all sorts of styles and prices with Sauvignon Blanc. Some
can be too grassy, and some are too grapefruity. You know, the ones where you take a sip and start looking for grapefruit pulp. Not with this one. Grab a Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc 2012. It is a Goldilocks wine. Not too grassy, not too grapefruity. Just right. Some professional wine reviewers can go overboard with their descriptions. While giving this wine 90 points, the Wine Enthusiast says it is, “so clean and racy, it makes your mouth feel like it’s shining.” Well. That’s fine, I guess. What I noticed was well balanced flavors – some typical California grassiness with crisp lemon and a nice long finish. Normal retail is $12 – $14, but I found it in a big box store for about $9. It would go beautifully with grilled shrimp, but it is also excellent all by itself. Salads and light chicken dishes are good bets, too.
Almost everyone knows that Cabernet Sauvignon and grilled steak is a marriage made in heaven.
And it is a marriage that is consummated every time you have a good cab and a good steak. Although I love a strip steak, I am becoming a fan of the flat-iron steak. Especially if you are cooking for a group. You grill it in much the same way as a flank steak, but the flat-iron is a more tender cut. I recently had a flat-iron with a Montes Cabernet Sauvignon Classic Series 2011. This Cab is from Chile, and the Classic Series are their “entry-level” wines. It is 15% Merlot, probably to soften the Cab a bit. Take a sniff, and you immediately get classic Cabernet Sauvignon. The wine delivers black currant and dark cherry as you taste it as well. Depending on your palate and imagination, you may find licorice or violet notes also. It is nicely balanced with acidity and soft tannins. Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate scores the wine a 90 and says, “At this price, it would be hard to find a better Cabernet.” By the way, the retail price will be about $12, but denizens of big box stores can find it for about $10. Another thing that sets this one apart from most $10-$12 Cab is its richness and mouthfeel. Grab some. It is worth the effort.