Summertime

• Posted on 17 August 2021
• Posted in auxerrois, cincult, france, grenache, New Zealand, pinot gris/pinot grigio, pinot noir, Syrah
• 0

The soulful voice of Ella Fitzgerald sang “Summertime and the livin’ is easy” and The Isley Brothers noted that “Summer breeze makes me feel fine.” Put on some summertime tunes, kick back, and enjoy the “Summer Breeze” (Seals & Crofts) along with a glass of wine.

While we may be having a slight respite from the days where the heat index hits triple digits, it is still time for the light and refreshing wines of summer. Ideal summertime wines have high acidity, are light- to medium-bodied, and usually dry. If sweet wine is your choice, make sure it has high acidity, along with the sweetness.

City Vino is rolling out summertime wines this weekend (August 20 and 210). Our weekend tasting will feature four wines to help you through “Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days of Summer,” as Nat King Cole so eloquently described them. In the song “Summer Nights,” from “Grease,” John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John sang “tell me more, tell me more,” so let us get to the wines!

Our first featured wine is the 2020 The Ned Pinot Gris, from Marlborough, New Zealand. This Pinot Gris has beautiful floral notes on the nose, along with stone fruit and pear on the palate. Who doesn’t love fresh summer fruit this time of year? As Katrina and the Waves put it, “I’m walking on sunshine,” and in this case you are drinking sunshine in a glass.

Our next featured wine is the 2018 Wolfberger Auxerrois, from the Alsace region in France. You may not have heard of the grape Auxerrois. It has the same parentage as Chardonnay—Gouais Blanc and Pinot Noir. Just like children from the same parents are often different, so are these grapes. This wine has fresh aromas and flavors of white flowers and white fruit, along with citrus and tropical fruit. With that tropical fruit, let’s pair this with 2001’s “Island in the Sun,” by Weezer.

You knew we just had to include a lovely rosé in our summertime tasting and as Harry Styles in his song “Watermelon Sugar,” sings “Tastes like strawberries on a summer evenin’ and it sounds just like a song.” The rosé is the 2019 Domaine Fabre Cuvée Serpolet Rosé Côtes de Provence France, from the Côtes de Provence, in France. This bright, light wine, with aromas and flavors of strawberry and raspberry, would please even Harry.

For our final wine, we had to include a red, and we chose a wine with spicy, savory, bright, and juicy red fruit—the 2018 Paddy Borthwick Paper Road Pinot Noir, from Wairarapa in New Zealand.

This is a medium-bodied red wine, with soft tannins. You may pick up a light touch of earth, ripe strawberry, raspberry, and sweet cherries in this wine. Add a light chill to this wine to make it “Cool for the Summer,” as Demi Lovato sang it in 2015.

We hope you get some time to relax this late summer. Whether you are going on a “Vacation” (The Go-Gos, 1981), “Surfin’ Safari” (Beach Boys, or having a “Saturday in the Park” (Chicago, 1972) – make it memorable, with wine!