Food and wine
What wine with steak frites?
The dish where a simple Bordeaux does exactly what it is supposed to.
Grilled steak with chips. The default dish of every French brasserie, and the one where the wine has the least excuse to be wrong.
Why this pairing works
Grilled, salted meat with no complicated sauce: the wine can be structured without risk. The tannins meet the protein in the meat and soften on contact: the most mechanical pairing there is.
Look for on the list
Bordeaux supérieur
22–40 €The reflex, and it is right: merlot and cabernet, tannin, blackcurrant. Cheap by the glass.
Saint-Émilion
40–80 €If you step up a little: rounder, suppler, still firm enough for the meat.
Côtes du Rhône Villages
25–45 €Spicier, warmer, and often the best value on a brasserie list.
What to avoid : Whites, unless you really want one. And sweet wines, which bring out the salt.
The ranges are restaurant prices for a full bottle. By the glass, reckon on roughly a quarter. At a wine shop, divide by two or three.
What to say
« Un verre de rouge pour accompagner le steak, qu'est-ce que vous avez ? »
pronounced : uhn vair duh rooj poor a-kom-pa-NYAY luh stek, kess-kuh voo za-VAY
A glass of red to go with the steak: what do you have?
Yes, but on this list?
Knowing which style of wine you want still does not tell you which one to take from the thirty lines in front of you. Photograph the list: Cépage compares what is actually available, at your budget, and decides.
Scan a list