I have a good friend who is a master at taking cuts of beef, pork, chicken, sausages or about any meat product and turning it into smoked barbeque heaven. I am pretty well versed in the ways of the kitchen and gas grill, but even with his help in trying to make me an accomplished “smoker," I just haven’t gotten the hang of it yet. Now this has not kept me from cooking up racks of baby backs or St. Louis ribs--I do it all the time. After I pull off the membrane on the back of the rib I apply liberal amounts of my son’s special dry rub to each side of the rack. I let the rub work itself in for about 30 minutes and then set the rib on a cookie sheet in a preheated 200 degree oven ( I use convection ) for four hours. Then the ribs get wrapped in foil until they cools, about 30 minutes, and then into the fridge until I need them. The rest is pretty easy, I have a four burner gas grill with cast iron grates, which are great because they really retain the heat--perfect for indirect grilling. I turn the burners to each end on high until it gets to 400 degrees, set the ribs on the two middle grates and let them heat through…about 10 minutes on each side. By using indirect heat, there are no worries about flare-ups that could burn the ribs. The dry rub we use has a little dark brown sugar in it and will quickly turn black and grisly if it catches fire from a flare-up, and I certainly don’t want that! 

Now that’s what I have to do until I learn how to use my smoker. What I don’t have to learn is what wines are really good with my barbequed ribs. After much enjoyable trial and error I have found a couple very good wines to drink while the ribs are grilling, and some to go with them at the table too. My go-to wines right now are the Petite Sirah from High Valley Vineyards ($16.99) and Playtime Red ($9.99) from Lake County in northern California.

The Playtime Red is a crazy blend of Zinfandel, Grenache, Petite Verdot and Barbera, but somehow this odd collection of red varietals turns into a red wine bursting with ripe fruit flavors and hints of spice that are barbeque's best friend.

The High Valley Petite Sirah is a much bolder wine than the Playtime and will stand up to anything you can think to spice up to smoke and grill. It is one of those wines that will stain your teeth and warm your very soul!!

Now there are many good wines that will go with your outdoor cooking this summer, but these are two that I really enjoy. If you know of any others that you would recommend, comment below and I’ll pass it along. 

Ken Amendola, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine supervisor

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinekena