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" It&amp;#039;s cookout season. You&amp;#039;ve got the grill fired up, hordes of friends en route, a cooler full of cold ones, and a couple jugs of Carlo Rossi for the ladies. All set, right? Well, maybe not. As we grow up, we start to develop more refined tastes. Just like a secret sauce for the ribs or special ingredients for that perfect burger, your beverage game needs to step it up. We&amp;#039;re not suggesting that you drop a weeks pay on a case of curated vino, but in an age that seems like everyone is a foodie, making that little extra effort can go a long way. To help make things a little less intimidating, we spoke with rock n&amp;#039; roller, wild-maned man about town, and Food &amp;amp;amp; Wine magazine&amp;#039;s 2009 Winemaker of the Year Charles Smith for some recommendations that will make you look good without draining the bank account. Interviewed by James Joiner General recommendations:  Red  I&amp;#039;d go with wines that are really easy to drink. Wines where you don&amp;#039;t have to think too much to enjoy. For me, I really like this winery from Chianti called Villa Cafaggio.  A cookout is about the cookout \u2014 it&amp;#039;s about your friends and a beautiful day. Wine&amp;#039;s just a part of it. Drink wines that are just really easy and enjoyable. I&amp;#039;d go with that Cafaggio \u2014 you can chill it down a little bit and it goes great with everything, even fish. If you want to step up and spend a little extra money, they have a single vineyard Sangiovese called San Martino and for another $15 or $20 you&amp;#039;re going to get something that&amp;#039;s just spectacular. I&amp;#039;m a big fan of that winery, and you can find their wines fairly regularly available around the country.  White For regular whites I&amp;#039;m going to go back to Italy. I like the white wines of Northern Italy, especially something that&amp;#039;s got a little bit of richness, a little bit of freshness. I like this little winery called Cantina Terlano. All their inexpensive wines are around $13, and are absolutely killer for the price. You can get Pinot Bianco, which I think is really fantastic, and if you want to splurge a bit again, you can drink their single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc, and it&amp;#039;ll just knock your socks off. It&amp;#039;ll be refreshing, rich, and if somebody pours that in your glass at a cookout, you&amp;#039;re going to go, &amp;quot;Wow, what was that?&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s just so good. It&amp;#039;s important to pick wines that are interesting. They don&amp;#039;t have to be expensive, what you&amp;#039;re looking for is a broad appeal. Everybody should go, &amp;quot;Wow, that&amp;#039;s tasty,&amp;quot; and then move on to the conversation and the food. Pink Well, for sure you&amp;#039;ve got to drink Ros\u00E9. I mean, summer says Ros\u00E9. I hate to say \u2014 and love to say, at the same time \u2014 my project with (Brooklyn-based winemaker) Charles Bieler, Charles and Charles, is pound for pound the most balanced, tastiest Ros\u00E9 in America, and once again you can find it anywhere. Food-specific recommendations: Burgers It&amp;#039;s kinda hard to beat American Zinfandel. You get a lot of flavor, and a lot of spiciness, and a lot of richness. With a great burger you&amp;#039;ve got the grilled meat, the crusty bun, you&amp;#039;ve got added elements of the mustard and onions and the sweetness of the pickle... There&amp;#039;s just so many inexpensive California Zinfandels out there. It&amp;#039;s a classic. In the summer you can put one of them in the ice bucket, and they&amp;#039;ll taste fruity and spicy and delicious, and you don&amp;#039;t even have to have the right brand. You just have to have the right varietal, and Zinfandel is the ticket. Recommended: Montevina. The winery has been around for over a hundred years, and the wine is delicious and older; you can get a kick-ass bottle for around $15.  Ribs  If I was going for ribs, I&amp;#039;d just go for a nice Cotes Du Rhone. Once again, as long as it&amp;#039;s a reliable producer, the wine is going to be fleshy and fruity. It&amp;#039;s gonna have a lot of character, and it&amp;#039;s going to be able to absorb the sweet and spiciness and the savoriness of the ribs. It&amp;#039;s one of those red wines you can cool down \u2014 hell, room temperature in the summertime is 80 or 90 degrees, so definitely chill it. Recommended: E. Guigal. The most common one you can find, it&amp;#039;ll cost you about $15, and you&amp;#039;ve got a very solid, very reliable bottle of wine.  Chicken  Now, I love Riesling. I&amp;#039;m going to plug one of my own wines simply because in the summertime you want something cool, something refreshing and something that&amp;#039;s compelling to drink. You can do chicken savory, with barbecue sauce, all kinds of ways. Nothing tastes better in summer with food that Riesling \u2014 it&amp;#039;s the most versatile grape in the world. That doesn&amp;#039;t necessarily mean that it&amp;#039;s sweet, it simply means that it&amp;#039;s good quality and good price. The Kung Fu girl always kicks ass. Recommended: Charles Smith Kung Fu Girl, $15.  Veggie Burgers Veggie burger sounds challenging. What the fk do you put on a veggie burger? Are they kind of savory? Like stuffing maybe? How about a Gew\u00FCrztraminer? A veggie burger is probably savory with some spiciness, it sounds like Thanksgiving on a bun. I love Gew\u00FCrztraminer. Its delicious, super flavorful, drinks really well when ice cold, and there&amp;#039;s a winery from California, Navarro, that&amp;#039;s delicious. It&amp;#039;s really, really good. On the dryer side, fragrant. The people that want a veggie burger probably like different things, and they&amp;#039;re probably gonna find the Gew\u00FCrztraminer to be an exciting choice. Not just another wine, but something special. Recommended: Navarro Gew\u00FCrztraminer, $19.50.  Fish I really like Sauvignon Blanc. I actually love Sauvignon Blanc. I love it because it has herbal, big, tropical flavors. It can be very, very different, and it&amp;#039;s really refreshing. It&amp;#039;s one of the nicest beverages as far as wine goes, and it can hold up to a lot. There&amp;#039;s a small winery here in Washington State, if you can find it. It&amp;#039;s called Chinook. It&amp;#039;s really the quintessential Washington Sauvignon Blanc. Utterly delicious. If you can&amp;#039;t find that, California&amp;#039;s Joel Gott is really reliable and always tasty. It&amp;#039;s available anywhere, and the winemaker is fantastic. Recommended: Chinook, $17.95 or Joel Gott, $13.99. Steak There are several ways to go. A lot of people say, &amp;quot;Cab is king&amp;quot;. But you know, I make Syrah, and I think that&amp;#039;s absolutely great. I think you can go with either one. For the spirit of cookouts, you can&amp;#039;t go wrong with my Boom Boom Syrah. Again, you want a wine that is really interesting, but you don&amp;#039;t want to drink $50 bottles at a cookout with twenty friends. You&amp;#039;re not doing a tasting, you&amp;#039;re putting it out to drink.  Recommended: Charles Smith Boom Boom Syrah, $15.99 or Josh Cabernet Sauvignon, $14.99.   Spicy Sausage  I think the best wine for that is beer. Nothing&amp;#039;s gonna cool your mouth down like an ice-cold beer \u2014 it&amp;#039;s dealer&amp;#039;s choice, pick your flavor.  And most importantly: A cookout is about being outside with friends. It&amp;#039;s easy. It&amp;#039;s not supposed to be taxing on your wallet. For people with good taste, they choose the right thing to grill and they&amp;#039;ll choose the right thing to complement it. Try to remember at the end of the day it&amp;#039;s what tastes good that matters. It&amp;#039;s just wine, drink it! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/drinks/a23408/cookout-wine-pairings/>