Steak frites

Steak frites

Assuming an entrecote or sirloin with chips, served with bearnaise or a garlic butter.

Steak frites puts a juicy, charred steak beside salty, fatty chips, often with a rich butter sauce. The wine wants fresh acidity to cut the chips and the butter, firm but not heavy tannin for the meat, and a savoury or herbal edge that suits tarragon and pepper. A big, oaky blockbuster is too much for a bistro plate.

Pairs Perfectly. Cabernet Franc from the Loire, Chinon or Saumur-Champigny, France. Raspberry, graphite and a leafy, herbal note over fresh acidity and moderate tannin, which cuts the chips and picks up the tarragon in a bearnaise. It is the bistro red of its home country.

Pairs Well. Tempranillo, Rioja, Spain, in its modern, fruit forward style. Cherry and spice with soft tannin, and good value.

Pairs Well. Crozes-Hermitage, northern Rhône, France. Syrah with black pepper and olive, for steak with a peppercorn sauce.

Worth Seeking Out

Mondeuse from Savoie, France. An alpine red, dark and peppery with bright acidity, which does for steak what northern Rhône Syrah does at a lighter weight.

Avoid

Heavily oaked, very ripe reds and delicate whites. Oak and jammy fruit smother a simple plate, and a delicate white has nothing for the meat.

Failing That

A Chianti Classico, Italy.

If All Else Fails

Pinot Noir, Central Otago.

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