The Top Wines for a Successful Barbecue

• Choose wines that are simple and pleasant to drink. There's no need to bring out an expensive, sophisticated vintage to decant! With this simple and often improvised cuisine, friends' wines can reveal their beautiful assets without neglecting quality. What's more, with affordable prices, the pleasure is multiplied tenfold!
• Choose young, fresh wines without too much tannic structure or complexity so as not to steal the show from the delicious flavour of grilled meats. While powerful tannins may be appropriate with red meat, they risk weighing down the palate, preventing you from appreciating the nuances of other, more delicate dishes.

• With beef, lamb or duck, you can go for a more powerful flavour. A red wine, of course, but roundness is a must! Avoid astringent tannins.
• For all spicy skewers and sausages, Syrah is in the limelight for its spiced side: a red or rosé Pays d'Oc wine or a Clairet are welcome.
• For any delicate meat (pork, chicken, fine fish, seafood), we prefer fresh, fruity, light rosés or an expressive white wine. As a rosé or white wine, the Côtes de Gascogne IGP do very well.
• Fish with character and marinades (sardines, mackerel, swordfish, anchovies) go well with a lightly sparkling wine. Particularly pleasant and refreshing, these wines sparkle slightly on the tongue to awaken the taste buds to the vivacity of their aromas.

• A salad with too much vinegar, because vinegar increases the acidity of the wine you're tasting tenfold and therefore spoils it. Often served with grilled meats, the flavours and textures it adds should not be overlooked.

Discover our selection of summer favourites: wines that are sure to charm you!

If rosé wines are the undisputed stars of barbecues, it's because they are the best allies throughout the meal: aperitif, grilled meats, salad and even dessert. Choose lively, expressive rosés! Head for the South of France, where the appellations of Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence, Southern Rhône and the South-West produce distinctive rosés full of originality. Their fruity character and subtle structure make them the perfect accompaniment to grilled meat and fish, charcuterie, salads and grilled vegetables. For a flawless dessert, opt for a red and black fruit salad and try the great classic: strawberry salad! Bleeding rosés are preferable: obtained from a grape harvest put into vats where, after a few hours' maceration, the bleeding consists of releasing some of the juice that has already taken on a pinkish hue so that it can be vinified separately. This practice produces rich, expressive rosés with a deeper colour. With their light tannins, they have more body and tone than other rosés.

Every vintage for the last 20 years has been a success. This easy-to-match rosé from the Perrin family is one of the best value for money! Lively and well-balanced, it's a great value as an aperitif, and goes well with starters and grilled meats.

Domaine UBY was one of the pioneers in the creation of fresh, aromatic wines. The rosé version is becoming increasingly popular, the press is raving about it and professionals are snapping it up! For aperitifs, barbecues and desserts, this 5-litre format is perfect for any occasion, and will quench the thirst of your guests. It's a must-have for summer parties!

An all-rounder, this grape variety is known for producing fleshy, fruity red wines that go well with red or white meats and fine fish. Touraine, Anjou and of course Beaujolais, but this summer we've set our sights on the most tender and fragrant appellation, Saint Amour!

A crisp, pleasurable wine from Jean-Paul Brun, whose quality ambitions help to renew the best Beaujolais Crus every year.

Very versatile at the table, Merlot can accompany a very wide range of flavours and textures. Rosé wines and supple, fruity red wines go well with all grilled meats, as well as dry charcuterie and savoury tarts. Powerful, concentrated Merlots should be reserved for fine cuts of red meat (rib steak, duck breast, lamb), like this simple, generous cuvée from Domaine de la Janasse:

With its hint of spice, without lacking in finesse, it produces cuvées that are always silky smooth and a match for even the spiciest dishes.

From Roussillon, from one of our favourite estates, Domaine du Clos de Fées. With its scents of garrigue, under this wise name hides an aromatic bomb of fruit. This Syrah-dominant wine is a fine companion for fish with character, grilled red meats, oriental kofta, herby sausages and chipolatas.

In this wine-producing country, where the asado sur parilla (meaning "barbecue") is at the heart of traditions, how can we not mention Malbec for your fine cuts of red meat?

It's not just rosés and reds that have pride of place! When it comes to whites, the die-hards will opt for lively, fresh wines, dry of course, which will awaken the taste buds with white meats or grilled fish:

An Argentinian white wine! Original and exotic, the Torrontes grape variety delivers intense sensations: fresh on the nose with hints of musk, it combines roundness and liveliness with fine marinated meats and ceviche.

A superb bottle from one of the country's most prestigious Bodegas! Its excellent balance makes it an elegant white wine. Have your guests taste it blind - they'll be more than delighted!

Young, fresh, light and low in alcohol, vinho verde goes wonderfully with grilled sardines. Their acidity refreshes the palate. Slightly sparkling, they express themselves frankly on the flesh of fish with a very pronounced flavour. They add a real zing to grilled meats!

For those who absolutely insist on drinking white wine at barbecues! In all seriousness, this original cuvée from the most eclectic of winemakers, Jeff Carrel, is perfect from aperitif to dessert. You'll be seduced by its light sparkling attack and the suppleness of the Macabeu grape variety, which makes it a perfect match for white meats.

With their exuberant, tangy aromas, a Côtes de Gascogne or a Riesling grape variety will always be a friend of chicken, grilled fish, seafood a la plancha, and spicy dishes. Over the last few decades, Côtes de Gascogne wines have become popular with new consumers eager to enjoy the exuberant aromas of the Colombard grape variety. Aperitifs, savoury tarts, dry charcuterie, tapas, tapenade, grilled fish - their success is spectacular.