Summer Grilling Pairing | Wine & Food Pairing

Summer Grilling Wine Pairing

Every month, Carolyn Joy of Joy Wine & Spirits shares a divine wine and food pairing with our listeners. 

For a delicious wine pairing for summer grilling – spicy charred steaks, grilled portobello mushrooms, blackened tuna, Cajun spices or hard cheddar cheese – try a slightly cooled glass of Southern Right Pinotage. 

If you’ve ever been on the fence about liking Pinotage or even South African red wine, the 2013 Southern Right Pinotage just might push you to become a fan.

A beautiful expression, this wine is a pairing of the finicky Pinot Noir grape and the hardy varietal, Cinsault – a mixture created in 1925.  

Often associated with ripe bananas, burnt rubber, smoke or band-aids, Pinotage has a distinct rustic, earthy quality that people tend to either love or hate.

Vineyard owner Anthony Hamilton Russel chose cool, clay-soiled vineyards for his Pinotage with the goal of creating a refined, age-worthy style of wine from the grape. The wine succeeds in offering layers of berry fruit, classic wood spice notes, subtle smoke, minerals and an elegant texture, with none of the burnt rubber quality that is so often associated with lesser versions of the varietal.

The 2013 Southern Right Pinotage received 92 points from Wine Advocate. The next time you heat up the grill, bring home a bottle of this Pinotage from Joy Wine & Spirits.