Light, Fresh & Zippy Wines are First

It’s summer, it’s hot and it’s steamy, humid.  What is the best wine for this scenario? Might I suggest some wines that are light in weight, clean unsullied taste which also finishes bone dry. Wines that you may know are Albarino, Chablis (unoaked Chardonnay), Chenin Blanc & Pinot Gris or Grigio. These lovelies will refresh with their bright acidity and zesty nature. But wait there’s more! Some tasty vinos that you may not know are the Aligote (little known Burgundian white), Assyrtiko (Greek goddess wine), Cortese/Gavi (Italiano), Garganega/Soave (also Italian), Grenache Blanc (white wine from northern Spain), Muscadet (French melon de Bourgogne), Picpoul de Pinet, Pinot Blanc, Verdejo (Spain and Portuguese) and Verdicchio. These wines will lull you into submission with their acidity. The acidity will hit you smack in the salivary glands just behind your jaw. They will make you salivate and sate you and cool you down.  Who doesn’t want to be satisfied and sated in the sweltering heat?!?  

   Next we’ll roll into our light bodied wines with some herbal nature. What are you talking about sir? If you’ve ever had Sauvignon Blanc and noticed that grassy nature you know exactly what I’m talking about. This “green” aroma hits like bell pepper, grass or in some cases jalapeño. Wines that will give you this added herbal hit are Gruner Veltliner (Austria), Vermentino (Sardinia in the house!) and Vinho Verde (which is made from Alvarinho, Loureiro and Trajadura–there are others but they are in small proportions). These wines are great with salads, fruit and light meats. You’ll find that the herbaceousness adds an added lovely dimension to these foods and quite wonderful on their own.

   Finally we’ll bow down to those of you with a sweet tooth. These final wines will have a hint of residual sugar (RS) from the sugar in the grapes. Riesling will jump to the top of the list but you’ll want to get to know Gewurztraminer (with it’s exotic lychee smell and flavor), Moschofilero (another Greek wine you will want to get to know), Moscato (yeah baby) and a bracing slap in the behind with Argentinian Torrontes. These wines go extremely well with spicy foods like Mexican, Thai and anything with a high Scoville scale. If you have some semi hard cheese you will experience an astounding pairing that is rarely seen.

   So there you have it. These are not even all the white wines you can drink and we’ll go over others in a following post about Creamy/Dry wines and really Bold & Sweet wines. All these wines can be found here at Wine Republic. The home of Sustainable, Organic and Biodynamic wines. See you soon and stay cool in the heat.