White Wine for Steak Eaters

Somepeople just don't like red wine. That's a character defect, but we all have them. People think I have one in that I find peanut butter to be the single most disgusting item ever created. It tastes bad, it smells bad, it feels bad. Red wine is not that.

A problem is that the some of the red wine haters really like steak and they really also like wine, but not the red colored ones. What are they to do?

As long-time readers of this site will know, one of the best ways to work with the richness, fat content, and flavor profile of steak is with an equally rich wine that also is quite tannic. You might even recall that the tannins (polyphenols) react with the fat to help to reduce the natural extremes of both.

White wines don't have tannins, though. So, that reaction is out. We need a different approach. One such approach is to change the way we prepare our steaks. If they are drenched in butter and garlic, we need a wine that goes with that preparation. What might that be?

Butter, clearly, is another fatty addition. But, it has a texture and flavor that more suggest body and creaminess. If we are going to drink a white wine with it, we need a wine that can hold its own against those textures and have enough body to deal with the steak. Here, my suggestions are a big rich Chardonnay, perhaps a white Rioja, an aged old world Riesling, or my number one choice in the matter, a white Rhone typically composed of some combination of Marsanne and Roussanne. Big, rich, full-bodied fit those blends so well.

Another way to prepare steak that for most people is all or nothing, that is, they love it or hate it, is steak tartare. Often served with an egg, lemon, and or capers among other additions, and served cold, this is a very different proposition. The meat tends to be less fatty and has all those additional flavors. In many ways, this has similar chemical structure to caviar. And, with caviar, and with steak tartare, these is no better pairing than a Blanc de Blanc (Chardonnay) Champagne.

So, yes Virginia, those odd people who don't like red wine can still have wine with their steak,

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