Steak can be the 800-pound gorilla of dining, which honestly is why we love it. By using sauces, you can make that “gorilla” a little more playful, especially with wine. Winter sauces often feature dark reductions and startling amounts of spice (or even—gasp—ketchup). But in the summer, you want a steak sauce to be as bright and fresh as your backyard.
The best place to start is with Argentine chimichurri, which we have called “the one sauce you need.” This startlingly bright green herb sauce—no cooking required—puts flat leaf parsley and oregano in front, with garlic, oil and vinegar in supporting roles. The result is a refreshing and bold foil to the meaty goodness coming off your grill. And it sings with less astringent red wines. Just be sure to make twice as much as you think you need since it is great on everything from deviled eggs to shrimp, even just spread on bread. Tastes like summer.
Another direction, especially useful for getting flavors like wine and pepper onto the plate, is to make compound butter. Our recipe is for the classic red wine butter, which builds a flavorful connection to your glass, but once you start making compound butters you will challenge yourself to find what flavors cannot be added by this vehicle. Au poivre sauce for the guest who loves crushed black pepper or chipotle puree for those who crave spice and smoke are just two more options.
What Wine Goes Best with Steak? And Why?
We often try to be democratic in pairings and say, “Drink what you like” or suggest alternatives such as trying a light red or a bold white with a certain dish. Well, as Buzz Lightyear says in Toy Story, “Not today!” Have white wine during pregame and then go big red.
There’s a good reason so many steak houses have wine lists packed with Cabernet Sauvignon: Generous red wines with ripe flavors make a perfect fit for grilled steaks. The tannins in the wine cut through the fat in the beef. The natural sweetness of the meat ties in with the fruit in the wine, and the hint of smoke picked up from the grill counterbalances the toasty flavors acquired when a wine is aged in oak barrels.
The sauces are what give you some wiggle room here. Because of its origins and its herbal accents, Malbec is a natural with the chimichurri. Serve grippier reds with flavored butters; the added fat and the bigger tannins balance each other out. For a boldly peppery sauce, seek a red with ripe, sweet fruit and complementary spice notes.
Expert Tips for Grilling Steaks
Choose steaks 1 to 2 inches thick. Season with salt and pepper, and cook on a charcoal or gas grill according to your preferred method, until an instant-read thermometer registers:
- 125° F for rare
- 130° F to 135° F for medium-rare
- 140° F for medium
- 155° F for well-done
Let steaks stand 5 minutes. To keep portions reasonable, cut larger steaks across the grain into thick slices.
Recipe: Easy Chimichurri Sauce
This simple and magical sauce is all things to all foods. With a rich, meaty steak, it brightens the dish, refreshes the palate and can pull out vegetal flavors. Naturally, chimichurri is great with wines with herbal notes, a fair amount of body and not too much acidity. You can play around with proportions—add more vinegar for zing; flip the amounts of oregano and parsley; add some mint—but the target is a bright, herbaceous sauce. On paper, it doesn’t look like it would work with beef and red wine. On the table, it is perfect.
How to Make Chimichurri for Steak
Ingredients
- 1 cup flat-leaf parsley
- 1/4 cup oregano
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- A few shakes of red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
Place all ingredients in a food processor. Whiz. Done. Accompanies up to 6 servings
Note: Sauce verte is the same idea, with the addition of a few anchovies, some capers and shallots, lemon zest and whatever herbs look good.
Winning Wine Pairing for Steak with Chimichurri: Malbec
Malbecs tend to offer plush, concentrated, dark fruit—think black cherries—and have a substantial enough body to stand up to bold flavors on the plate. That can make them preferable, in this case, to more austere reds. With the chimichurri sauce, Malbec proves the old maxim “If it grows together, it goes together.”
Our Editors' Recommended Malbecs
Finca Decero The Owl & The Dust Devil Icon Blend Remolinos Vineyard Agrelo 2021 (92 points, $33): Blending Malbec with Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot and Tannat, this red combines aromas of dried mountain herbs, graphite and cassis with a core of blackberry and plum fruit, a boost of acidity and fine tannins.
Kaiken Malbec Mendoza Estate 2021 (91, $15): With floral, slate and peppery-herb accents enhancing the concentrated dried cherry and plum paste flavors, this red ends on a toasty note, showing hints of chocolate.
Trivento Malbec Luján de Cuyo Golden Reserve 2021 (90, $23): Dried hibiscus and herbal details lead to a mix of peppery, raspberry flavors in this elegant version, which finishes with polished tannins.
Find more recently rated Malbecs from Argentina in our Wine Ratings Search.
Recipe: Easy Compound Butter for Steak
To tie a wine more closely to the dish, make a compound butter infused with the same red wine you’ll be drinking. Heating the wine to reduce it raises the acidity level, but adding a teaspoon of sugar balances that out without making the resulting sauce sweet.
How to Make Red-Wine Compound Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 small shallot, sliced
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- Salt, to taste
1. Combine the red wine, sugar and shallot in a nonreactive saucepan.
2. Boil until reduced to about 1 tablespoon. Strain into a bowl and let cool.
3. Using a fork, mash butter into wine reduction. Mix until all wine is absorbed.
4. Season with salt to taste. Place in refrigerator until firm. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons to steak just before serving. Accompanies up to 6 servings
Winning Wine Pairing for Steak with Compound Butter: Zinfandel
Another wine packed with bold, ripe fruit, Zinfandel works well with grilled foods and big flavors. Zin can have a sweet, even jammy element to its typical cherry and berry fruit, but that is usually balanced by acidity, tannin and spice (such as black pepper) that cut the fat on the plate.
Our Editors’ Recommended Zinfandels
• Ridge Three Valleys Sonoma County 2021 (92, $35): This expressive red blend of Zinfandel with Petite Sirah, Syrah and Alicante Bouschet offers blackberry, dill and white pepper flavors.
• Seghesio Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley Cortina 2022 (94, $50): The layered raspberry flavors in this vibrant red are accented with dried sage and smoked black pepper notes.
• Cline Zinfandel Lodi Old Vine 2022 (90, $11): This racy red is loaded with pepper flavors, along with fresh cherry, sweet anise and cinnamon notes that zip along the zesty finish.
Find more recently rated California Zinfandels in our Wine Ratings Search.
Recipe: Easy Au Poivre Sauce
In the classic French bistro dish, the steak is coated with freshly ground black pepper, sautéed in butter and finished by igniting the pan with Cognac. In this version, no sautéing is necessary, and everything is made in advance. The peppery sauce gives the wine a satiny texture and brings out its fruit flavors.
How to Make Steak au Poivre
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon brandy
- 1 teaspoon beef demiglace (or beef broth concentrate)
- 1 tablespoon freshly ground pepper
- 1/4 cup crème fraîche
- Salt, to taste
1. Bring the brandy to a boil in a small skillet, or microwave it in a 1-cup measuring cup for 30 seconds. Set aside to cool.
2. In a small bowl, mix the cooled brandy with the demiglace, pepper and crème fraîche. Add salt to taste, or fold in more crème fraîche if the mixture is too salty. (Commercial beef broth can be quite salty.) Serve in a small cup on the side. Accompanies 2 to 4 servings
Winning Wine Pairing for Steak au Poivre: Cabernet Sauvignon
Depending on the region where it’s grown and the winemaking techniques used, Cabernet Sauvignon wines can emphasize fruit or herbal flavors. For example, Napa versions often go for plush, dark opulent fruit such as blackberries, black cherries and black currants, in contrast to Bordeaux reds which often show savory, herbal and mineral overtones.
What unites all the styles of Cabernet around the world are its sturdy, tannic structure and the tendency to age the wine in new oak barrels, giving them additional toasty, spice notes such as cedar, tobacco and star anise. Cabernets can be made as 100 percent varietal wines, but are often blended with other grapes—such as Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot—for complexity and balance.
Our Editors’ Recommended California Cabernets
• Raymond Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Reserve Selection 2021 (92, $50): Flush with warmed cassis and plum reduction notes, this generous, weighty red is inlaid with violet, cocoa, humus and singed alder accents.
• Sequoia Grove Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021 (91, $55): Ripe but understated, this red offers dark currant and plum reduction flavors, laced with fresh earth and tobacco notes, and ends with a grippy finish.
• Faust Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2021 (94, $65): In this broad red, a ganache note drapes over black currant, blackberry and steeped cherry, followed by licorice root and alder smoke flavors, ending with a flash of violet.
Find more recently rated Napa Cabernets in our Wine Ratings Search.
