August 27th, 2012
10:00 AM ET
Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant – and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray.
I believe it was in elementary school math (or perhaps junior high school - this was a ways back) where they sat us down and taught us about sets. You remember sets. For instance, the set of men who are over 6'9" and the set of men who have under size six feet rarely intersect; if they do, you’ve got a guy who falls over a lot. This approach to understanding life is handy when it comes to hamburgers and wine.
Consider: there is the set of people who like hamburgers, which is large. There is also the set of people who only like white wine, which is also large (and includes but is not limited to several of my in-laws). The shaded area where those two overlap is the set of people who like hamburgers but only drink white wine, and for whom saying something like “Hamburgers go great with Cabernet” is about as useless as legs on a fish.
For those folks, the appropriate advice is more the following: hamburgers can also go great with a substantial white wine that nevertheless has good acidity, since you need something to cut through the fat. Chardonnay has the substance; grow the grapes in a cool climate - for instance, Oregon, the far coast of Sonoma, or western Australia - and you’ll get the requisite acidity, too. A little oak doesn’t hurt either, as it goes well with the smoky char from the grill. Here are a few good options:
2010 Cline Cool Climate Chardonnay ($12)
The Sonoma Coast’s facility for producing crisp whites is on display in this green-apple-accented white.
2010 Errazuriz Estate Chardonnay Casablanca Valley ($14)
Like the far coast of Sonoma, Chile’s Casablanca Valley is right on the edge of the Pacific—the cooling ocean winds help produce lively yet full-bodied Chardonnays like this one.
2010 Witness Tree Willamette Valley Chardonnay ($15)
The 2010 vintage was a cool one for Oregon, which gives this focused white additional intensity.
2010 Chehalem Willamette Valley INOX Chardonnay ($17)
Winemaker Harry Peterson-Nedry skips the oak on this layered, pear-accented Chardonnay (“inox” is a French term for stainless steel, a reference to the steel tanks in which the wine was aged).
2011 Vasse Felix Estate Chardonnay ($20)
A citrus-zesty, complex wine from one of the top producers in western Australia’s Margaret River region, well worth the higher price.
More from Food & Wine
Best Burgers in the U.S.
America's Best Bars
America’s Most Over-the-Top Burgers
Best Wines for Summer
Summer Grilling Recipes
I believe it was in elementary school math (or perhaps junior high school - this was a ways back) where they sat us down and taught us about sets. You remember sets. For instance, the set of men who are over 6'9" and the set of men who have under size six feet rarely intersect; if they do, you’ve got a guy who falls over a lot. This approach to understanding life is handy when it comes to hamburgers and wine.
Consider: there is the set of people who like hamburgers, which is large. There is also the set of people who only like white wine, which is also large (and includes but is not limited to several of my in-laws). The shaded area where those two overlap is the set of people who like hamburgers but only drink white wine, and for whom saying something like “Hamburgers go great with Cabernet” is about as useless as legs on a fish.
For those folks, the appropriate advice is more the following: hamburgers can also go great with a substantial white wine that nevertheless has good acidity, since you need something to cut through the fat. Chardonnay has the substance; grow the grapes in a cool climate - for instance, Oregon, the far coast of Sonoma, or western Australia - and you’ll get the requisite acidity, too. A little oak doesn’t hurt either, as it goes well with the smoky char from the grill. Here are a few good options:
2010 Cline Cool Climate Chardonnay ($12)
The Sonoma Coast’s facility for producing crisp whites is on display in this green-apple-accented white.
2010 Errazuriz Estate Chardonnay Casablanca Valley ($14)
Like the far coast of Sonoma, Chile’s Casablanca Valley is right on the edge of the Pacific—the cooling ocean winds help produce lively yet full-bodied Chardonnays like this one.
2010 Witness Tree Willamette Valley Chardonnay ($15)
The 2010 vintage was a cool one for Oregon, which gives this focused white additional intensity.
2010 Chehalem Willamette Valley INOX Chardonnay ($17)
Winemaker Harry Peterson-Nedry skips the oak on this layered, pear-accented Chardonnay (“inox” is a French term for stainless steel, a reference to the steel tanks in which the wine was aged).
2011 Vasse Felix Estate Chardonnay ($20)
A citrus-zesty, complex wine from one of the top producers in western Australia’s Margaret River region, well worth the higher price.
More from Food & Wine
Best Burgers in the U.S.
America's Best Bars
America’s Most Over-the-Top Burgers
Best Wines for Summer
Summer Grilling Recipes
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