Steak and Cabernet Sauvignon? Yes, please. Here are two fantastic ways we fix our steaks when it’s too rainy to grill outside (though a little rain has never stopped us!).

We’re unapologetic beef lovers here. Grass-fed, pastured? Good for the environment. And don’t even try to tell me red meat isn’t healthy for a person or needs to be eaten in moderation. The ranchers I know are fitter at age 70 than most 40-year-olds. Move away from me with your improbable meats and cricket flour. By the way, is there such a thing as a vegan Cabernet drinker? I can’t imagine.

We love the grilling life. Kristof fires up the Santa Maria with oak barrel staves for extra tasty burgers. Our Santa Maria BBQ grill came as a DIY kit and was an anniversary gift from my parents years ago. Public parks along the Central Coast of California have multiple Santa Marias, and people reserve them for birthday parties and celebrations where you need to feed a lot of people.

Your can easily fit 30 pieces of meat on the sizzling hot grate. The wheel raises and lowers the grate to control heat through proximity to coals. The classic Santa Maria meal, of course, includes tri-tip sirloin, ranch bean, green salad, salsa, garlic bread. And maybe a “nice” Cabernet.

Kristof’s brother Ryan, founder of RAD Furniture in Los Angeles, has a homemade Hibachi-style grill for artfully searing and caramelizing steaks and summer produce. Thinly slice and tuck into a tortilla. You don’t need sauce.

When it rains, we sometimes sear our steaks in a cast iron pan, then deglaze it while the beef rests. This is too easy. Chase some garlic around the hot pan, maybe shallots or a sprig of rosemary from the backyard bush. A dollop of Dijon mustard if the mood strikes. Then pour in a glass or so of wine to bubble and steam and thoroughly deglaze the pan. When reduced down to a spoonful, the sauce is ready for a quarter stick of butter to magically thicken it into an unctuous and aromatic melding of layered flavors.

For winter entertaining, I’ve relied over the years on seared tenderloin with Cabernet Sauvignon sauce. It’s a really great sauce. You start by cooking down chopped onion, celery, and carrots in olive oil until good and browned. Add equal parts of beef stock and Cabernet, 2 cups each, and half a cup of balsamic vinegar. (Not the expensive balsamico, just the regular.) Simmer awhile, then strain the vegetables out. Simmer some more until syrupy, then add a chunk of butter. Your kitchen will smell amazing.

We all know that the tannins in Cabernet Sauvignon are transformed by the fat and protein in beef, a situation where the sum is greater than the parts, as in a good marriage. Did you ever read The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton? Maybe you know that part where Newland Archer takes “refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. ‘After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other’s angles,’ he reflected; but the worst of it was that May’s pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep.” Most Napa Valley Cabernets that cross my path are way too tannic; those sharp angles are mitigated by a juicy steak. But what if you have an elegant and balanced Cabernet, perhaps a library Cabernet, the angles of which you most want to keep?

The above sauces are a bridge between steak and a yinyang Cabernet like PELLA 2003-07 with “resolved” tannins and a purity and beauty you don’t want to obscure.

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