They’re great outdoors: wines to drink with a barbecue | Hannah Crosbie on drinks

When it comes to choosing a wine to serve with grilled meat or veg, it pays to think outside the box

In one section of my first book, Corker: A Deeply Unserious Wine Book, I sought to address the single-biggest DM slide I get every summer: what wines to bring to a barbecue. And the reason this is my most common request is pretty simple: where I live, in London, being invited to a barbecue means you have a friend with a garden, whereas most of us are concertinaed into blocks of flats and house shares.

The prospect of spending a hot afternoon outdoors and with a glass of something delicious is far more delightful than the idea of spending it in my sweaty room surrounded by black clothing (an excellent heat-insulating technique, by the way), especially if it involves an actual garden and generous pals. That’s an occasion to which you want to bring a bottle of something good.