Among the many dubious conventions that have built up around barbecuing, perhaps the most pervasive is the insistence that cheap, over-oaked, overly hot, over-the-top southern reds from Australia, Chile, Argentina and South Africa are ideal for the charcoal heap. For years now, we’ve been told that steak, ribs and burgers charred beyond recognition and smothered with three-alarm sauce are best washed down with cheap, soft, jammy red wine that tastes like a triple-chocolate sundae. But as barbecue wines, many of those southern reds—Yellow Tail and its critter knock-offs leap to mind—don’t actually work so well: summer heat can turn them to soup, and spicy grilling sauces and marinades dilute the fruit, leaving only alcohol heat to fan the flames. Barbecuing has grown up lately, too: fine cuisine is being wrought on the grill, and many of these inventive recipes deserve finer, more interesting wines.

If you insist on drinking big southern reds with your barbecue, spring for higher quality, better balanced bottlings. But the best bet is to look north, to inexpensive lighter, cooler climate reds that have more refreshing acidity. These are charming, casual wines with floral aromas that suggest the garden instead of the smokehouse; they’re bottles you might even consider chilling lightly. Look to northern France (Loire and Burgundy), northern Spain (Rioja and Navarre), northern Portugal (Douro), northern Italy (Venetia, Piedmont, Tuscany) and to Ontario, of course. And by the way, the 2005 vintage is excellent throughout Europe and Ontario, combining deeper fruit and well-harmonized, food-friendly structure. From the southern hemisphere, consider the cool climate reds from New Zealand. And if all this still sounds somehow counterintuitive, consider the huge new (and much-warranted) summer popularity of dry rosé. It’s not only brilliant barbecue wine; it’s the lightest red of all.