Since we were talking about Bon Appetit’s burger issue yesterday, we thought we’d look at options for pairing wine with burgers, from the tried-and-true to some more out-there recommendations. [level-members]
I’ll put this out there from the start: a grilled burger is no place for white wine. Argue if you’d like, but we’re just not going to agree … Beyond that, it all depends on how you prepare your burger and with what you accompany it.
Big reds are typically our go-to for traditional burgers with traditional toppings, but there’s a lot more you can explore.
The spice in Zins and Syrah can work fantastically, too, if you’ve spiced up your burgers.
The best advice we’ve come across is to consider wine as another accompaniment to the burger. Pick the wine based on what you’d like it to add to the overall flavor of the meal. A really fruity new-world style cab is going to create a completely different experience than the spicy wines mentioned above.
(As a sidebar, burgers are a great meal to experiment with. People are comfortable enough making them – and they’re simple enough and inexpensive enough to make more than just occasionally – that they can plan to make them weekly and try a different style wine. Great way to introduce people to learning more about wine and food/wine pairings.
And you knew this was coming: cab franc from the Loire is a great pairing for lamb burgers.
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