The Sips of Summer

The other day, a friend asked me what I drink in summer. I was a little surprised by the question. I hadn’t thought about my tastes changing from one season to the next.

But I soon realized that, as most would expect, my wine choices do change during the summer, leaning toward those that take a chill nicely. But I also find myself, strangely enough, reaching for sweet wines more when I’m lazing around in the heat than in the winter. There’s something about a cool, sweet yet crisp white wine such as a German Riesling that is irresistible during the summer.

Of course, what we’re eating and whether we’re eating it inside or out makes a difference as well. Summer means grilling, and there’s no question that it takes a pretty substantial wine to stand up to the tasty sweet-sour sauces that glaze so many barbecued meats.

It should also be noted that some wines--Pinot Noir is the supreme example--lose part of their appeal when sipped outside. Such wines trade on scent and, too often, this literally gets blown away outdoors.

The challenge, as always, is to choose from the vast array of wine possibilities. The following are suggestions for what you might want to look for by way of good-value wines. Here, it’s not so much the producer, vintage and district that drives the choice as the atmosphere or what you’re eating.

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Wines to Serve With Barbecue

The food crowd (rightly) distinguishes between grilled foods and barbecue. Here I’m talking about wines to go with barbecue as most of us know it: meats marinated in or slathered with delicious, sweet-sour basting.

Traditionally, barbecued meats are among the easiest summer foods to pair with wine because barbecue marinades are pretty much alike. And it doesn’t matter (to the wine) whether it’s beef, pork or chicken that’s getting the treatment.

What you want is a strong, fresh, young red wine. It should not be a red wine of much refinement, so that leaves out Burgundies, Bordeaux, Pinot Noirs in general and most other la-di-da reds. The ideal barbecue red might be Zinfandel. Nearly all the good ones (and they are numerous) are robust, fruity and taste great outdoors--and they don’t cost a fortune.

Another terrific barbecue red is Syrah. Here again, you don’t want anything fancy. If it costs more than $10 or $12, pass. That’s going to be too refined a Syrah for your purposes. Instead, look for a Syrah from southwest France (especially the area called Languedoc) or an Australian Shiraz (their word for Syrah).

You could also go for one of a host of inexpensive Italian reds: Barbera, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Ciro, Salice Salentino or Aglianico. Again, if the price tag goes much beyond $10, you’re paying too much.

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Wines to Serve With Salmon

Salmon is perhaps the most vexing food to pair with wine. The difficulty lies in the fact that salmon is a strongly flavored fish, giving a hard slap of the fin to wines that would work with almost any other fish. Chardonnay, for example, rarely works well with salmon.

But if it’s got to be Chardonnay, then it should be one of the big, rich powerful kind found in Central Coast appellations, for instance, Santa Maria Valley, Edna Valley or the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County.

What else works? I nominate Pinot Gris, a grape variety in which California winemakers are only just beginning to dabble (I recently tasted a lovely, tiny-production bottling from Byron Vineyard and Winery) and is just catching on among America’s white wine (read Chardonnay) lovers.

Oregon currently makes most of America’s small-output Pinot Gris. (Oregon’s King Estate is the biggest producer and, happily, one of the best.) But the two main sources of Pinot Gris are Alsace (rich, big Pinot Gris) and Italy (delicate, lighter-style versions labeled Pinot Grigio).

Others insist that a cool, light Pinot Noir is salmon’s best partner. This is the trendiest wine to serve with salmon, if only because it so flagrantly flouts the old “white wine with fish” rule. Pinot Noir with salmon is a pretty good combination and well worth trying, but it’s trickier than its advocates let on. It has to be a lighter Pinot Noir without too much oak--unless the salmon is grilled over wood coals. Then the smokiness in the fish can accommodate the sweet edge of oak.

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Wines to Serve With a Sunset

A sunset, sweet sippers are supreme. Sweeter-style wines run the gamut, and many are frankly insipid--sweet, but not much else. Really good sweet wines are thrilling. They have it all: intense flavors, bracing acidity and a fragrance that makes you swoon. Many of the best sweet wines can improve for decades because they invariably are high in acid, wine’s best preservative.

The most famous great sweet wine is French Sauternes. Composed of Semillon and Sauvignon Blanc, this wine is renowned for its ability to age for decades, as well as its luscious gold color, which deepens through the years to ever darker shades of amber. The Sauternes district in the Bordeaux region has numerous producers, many of them illustrious and their wines expensive. Prices range from $35 to $250 a bottle, but most Sauternes producers offer half-bottles as well. Powerful as it is, with alcohol levels sometimes exceeding 14%, a little Sauternes goes a long way.

Personally, I prefer sweet sippers that are more delicate. Two areas are supreme for such wines: Germany and France’s Loire Valley.

The great German Rieslings are issued with varying levels of sweetness, which is always noted on the label. More than most great wines, German Rieslings are a complicated field of study. You have to know what to buy, and this is where the advice of a good merchant is indispensable. German Rieslings are ideal for summer sipping if for no other reason than they are low (7% to 9%) in alcohol. Good German Rieslings sell for between $15 and $50 a bottle, depending upon sweetness and vintage. Older bottlings of 15 to 20 years can still be found, and they are wonderful, so don’t assume that younger is better.

Chenin Blanc is the informing grape for the great sweet Loire whites from districts with names like Coteaux du Lyon, Quarts de Chaume and Bonnezeaux. All of these wines are available, although in limited quantity. Happily, nearly all of the (relatively few) producers whose wines are exported are excellent. All are ideal, by the way, when served with salty blue cheeses such as Roquefort or Bleu d’Auvergne.

Here again, age is wonderful if you can get it; the great sweeter-style Loire whites improve for decades. Of all the world’s great sweet wines, those from the Loire Valley are the greatest undiscovered treasures. Prices range from $20 to $50 a bottle.

Not to be forgotten as an ideal sunset sipper is Muscat. The greatest Muscats come from Italy’s Piedmont region, which is also where the sparkling Muscat called Asti Spumante is created. But there’s an even better version of Muscat called Moscato d’Asti. This wine is slightly sweet with a slight bubbliness that the Italians call frizzante. The younger and fresher the Muscat, the better. Two especially good producers are Saracco and Icardi. Look for the latest (1996) vintage. Both wines sell for about $15.