Summer Wines and Other Light, Refreshing (and inexpensive) Quaffs

What makes a "summer wine?" It should taste better chilled than cellar (or room) temperature, have a lower alcohol content (12.5 percent or less), be widely available, and not set you back a lot at the checkout counter.

With that in mind, here are some suggestions from one of my favorite wine writers, Food & Wine's Ray Isle.

Vin Gris from Pinot Noir grapes

A lovely rose (pictured):

Cool breezes from the San Pablo Bay, off Napa's Carneros district, help give the 2010 Sean Minor Four Bears Vin Gris ($15) a bright, crisp acidity to go with its strawberry-inflected fruit. (Vin gris is an old French term for rosé that more and more California wineries are adopting.) Minor's bottling is 100 percent Pinot Noir.

More options:

2010 Skouras Moscofilero ($15) With its aromas of honeysuckle and tangerine, this brisk white from one of Greece's top wineries smells as though it might be sweet. Instead, it's bone-dry and crisp, an ideal match for oysters on the half shell.

2010 Waterbrook Sangiovese Rosé ($11) Washington's Columbia Valley isn't known for the Sangiovese grape variety, nor for rosés. As a result, Waterbrook's lightly floral bottling is a nice surprise.

2009 Martinshof Zweigelt ($12) For this spicy Austrian red, wine importer Carlo Huber blends the local Zweigelt variety with a small amount of Pinot Noir to "soften the edges," he says.

2009 Georges Duboeuf Juliénas ($13) In the great '09 vintage, all of Duboeuf's cru bottlings (those labeled from the 10 major towns of Beaujolais) are good. But this fragrant red is the best.

And how about light beers? Food & Wine did a blind taste test of many widely distributed light beers, and here was the clear winner:

Sam Adams Light "Light hoppy note; good, lasting flavor. A real beer."

Have a little bubble with your rose wine?

Yes, rose is a fine summer choice, whether still or sparkling.

Here's an excerpt from a recent piece in the LA Times about a variety of sparkling roses now in the market. Most of them go for $15-$20 a bottle, although a few can be had for as little as $12. Click here to read the entire article, and to see the author's list, which includes:

Nonvintage Louis Bouillot Crémant "Perle d'Aurore" Brut Rosé

NV Lucien Albrecht Crémant d'Alsace Rosé (sold at many Whole Foods stores)

2009 Luís Pato Casta Baga

2007 Raventós i Blanc Cava de Nit Brut Rosé

"If you believe as I do that more than any other type of wine, rosé is a mood, then your average sparkling rosé represents a very good mood indeed.

"Sparkling rosés are part of an ever-growing class of wines in pursuit of a cheery disposition, seizing on the built-in appeal of pink and adding the incomparable pleasure of effervescence, which can't help but brighten an already sunny experience. Like still rosés, a sparkling rosé aims to please rather than transport. So leave the cerebral whites in the cellar until Labor Day, off the more ponderous reds until the next equinox. For a summer afternoon, for any party involving a grill, a picnic basket, a pool or a cabana, pink fizz is the way to go."

  SOURCE: Los Angeles Times

Rose: Summer's Perfect Wine

Looking for a wine to go with an array of summer foods, from grilled chicken and shrimp to meal-size salads or homemade, lighter pizzas and flatbreads? Look no further than the blushing beauties from France, California, Spain and Italy. In addition to their food-friendly, dry to semi-dry flavors, most roses are priced to move. They don't usually cellar well and are meant for drinking young, so look for the 2009 or 2010 vintages.

Here are a few suggestions.

2009 Bieler Père et Fils Sabine Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence Rosé

This great value offers delicate floral aromas that shift to wild strawberry and watermelon flavors. An underlying spiciness on the palate carries through into a broad and crisp finish.

2009 La Vieille Ferme Côtes du Ventoux Rosé

A dark pink hue hints at the tart berry and currant flavors to come in this rich rosé. 

2009 Jules Côtes de Provence Rosé

Julian Faulkner works with different boutique growers each year, which allows him the flexibility to source grapes "wherever the best value and quality can be found on a particular vintage." His aromatic rosé—a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and the lesser-known Tibouren—is elegant, fruit-forward and herbal.

Rosados from Spain -- try to find one made from 100% garnacha, such as Bodegas Borsao Borsao

Crios de Susana Balbo Rose of Malbec 2010

This Argentinian winemaker is known for malbecs and torrontes, but I also love this rose, which has more body than most and a deep pink color.

"Eye of the Toad" 2010 Toad Hollow Rose

Most California roses just don't measure up, IMHO, but this one is done in the French style: very dry, good body and delicious.

Favorite Screw-Cap WInes -- Great for Picnics

Due to a problem with the host of this site (Google's blogspot), my posting from earlier this week about delicious screw-cap wines disappeared. Blogspot posted a notice saying all of their sites were stripped of any posting after Wednesday of this week.

It didn't even get saved as a draft. Very annoying!

Here are two of the five wines that I recommended, one white (left photo) and one red (right).

Crios Torrontes is a fine example of Argentina's best white-wine varietal, torrontes. Fragrant and fruity but with enough acidity to stand up to a variety of foods, it's one of my go-to white wines. The screw-cap makes it super portable and great for cookouts and picnics.

Try The Chook Shiraz as your red wine choice for those cookouts and picnics. It's wonderfully balanced, with delicious fruit and good structure to match with grilled meats, from chicken to steak and everything in between.

Five delicious screw-cap wines: terrific for picnics

I love the convenience of screw-cap wines; for me, it is a selling point rather than any kind of detriment. (No cork snobbery here.)

These closures become more sensible than ever when you're dining -- and drinking -- al fresco.

Some of my favorites, all widely available and under $20:

Crios Torrontes (2009) -- a crisp, rich white with a lovely aroma and full flavor, it holds up to grilled seafood and fatty fish such as salmon. This is Argentina's standout white wine, and Crios is among the best I've tasted. (pictured at left)


Perrin & Fils Cotes-du-Rhone Reserve -- try to get the 2007, a great vintage in the southern Rhone, but even a later vintage of this reliable red blend will be delightful.

Plantegenet Riesling (2008) -- is actually from western Australia, a not well known region of that country. This is highly quaffable, very food friendly, and goes for about $10-$12.

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (2009) -- not the least expensive New Zealand sauvignon blanc out there, but definitely one of the most excellent. I love NZ sauvignon blanc as much as any white wine, if only because it goes so well with the light, healthy food we tend to eat. You'll appreciate this one with shellfish, or summer salads.

Chook Shiraz Viognier (2009) -- you might just fall madly in love with this fruity Australian shiraz, which rises well above the ordinary. And it's not going to cost more than $10-$12, plus it goes with grilled burgers, steaks and other meats as well as any red wine you're likely to encounter this summer. (pictured at right)