Pairing Red Wine with Red Meat: Do I Really Have to Do That?

Photo by: Yahoo! Shine
There are certain labor-intensive recipe phrases that can make the most diligent cook roll her eyes. "Do I really have to do that?" we wonder. Leave your Do I Really Have To Do That? questions in the comments and they shall be answered, saving us all a lot of needless trouble.

If your summer goals are like ours, grilling thick steaks and burgers on long nights tops the list. Good food calls for good drinking, but who wants to follow the fussy old rule about red wine with red meat when it's 90-plus degrees outside? Do we really have to do that?

"That might have been the rule twenty years ago," Doug Bell, national wine and beer buyer for Whole Foods Market, told Yahoo! Shine, "but I think now the American wine consumer is intelligent enough to know to drink whatever they want with whatever they want." Bell's number one piece of advice is refreshingly simple: "Drink what you like," he says. The only way to find discover that is to be adventurous and experiment, one glass at time. "There's never been a better time to be a wine drinker," he says. Bell offers tips and suggestions for satisfying summer sips (including beer!) for all your red meat-filled backyard barbecues.
-Sarah McColl, Shine staff