Steak, plainly grilled

Steak, plainly grilled

Assuming sirloin or ribeye cooked over high heat to medium rare, salted, and served without a sauce.

A grilled steak is the one dish that actively wants tannin: it binds to the fat and the protein and leaves the palate clean for the next mouthful. The salt on the crust softens that same tannin, so a wine that tastes severe on its own turns round here. What the wine must have is weight to match, and a toasted or charred register rather than sweet fruit alone.

Pairs Perfectly. Cabernet and Merlot blend, Bordeaux, France. This is the tannin and fat mechanism in its purest form: blackcurrant and cedar over a firm structure that cuts straight through the marbling, with a graphite and bay leaf savouriness that meets the char rather than fighting it. A Côtes de Castillon from the limestone plateau gives the same Merlot led logic for a fraction of the money.

Pairs Well. Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina. Dark plum and violet with a softer tannin and a touch of cocoa from the barrel. It is the most reliably good value steak red on any shelf.

Pairs Well. Tempranillo, Ribera del Duero, Spain. Firmer and more mineral than its Rioja cousin, with cedar and leather over black fruit. The tannin is serious enough for a ribeye rather than a lean fillet.

Worth Seeking Out

Tannat from Madiran, France. The most tannic red grape in commercial production, grown in the southwest of France where the cooking is fat and confit. Against a fatty steak that severity stops being a fault and becomes the point.

Avoid

Delicate unoaked whites and light bodied reds. Both are simply flattened by the weight of the meat and neither has the structure to deal with the fat.

Failing That

A Rioja Crianza, Spain.

If All Else Fails

Chianti Classico, Tuscany.

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