Summer Wine Picks

image uploaded by alisdair on Flickr

With Memorial Day Weekend rapidly approaching, it’s safe to say that barbecue season has arrived. For most of us, this means burgers, beer, and way too much potato salad. There are plenty of wines, though, that’ll stand up to the high temperatures and grilled meat. Here are my picks for affordable summer quenchers that you should be able to find virtually everywhere.

Sparkling Wines
On a hot summer afternoon (or morning or evening) there’s nothing tastier than a glass of bubbly. Gloria Ferrer’s Sonoma Brut Sparkling Wine is my favorite American champagne for under $20. Another great choice is Piper Sonoma Brut, which can typically be purchased for under $15.

Sauvignon Blanc
New Zealand has perfected Sauvignon Blanc. While Sauvignon Blanc from California is often flat and tastes too much like green peppers (especially at the under-$20 price point), NZ’s Sauvignon Blanc is typically fresh with quite a bit of acidity and citrus-oriented flavors. For under $20, your two best bets are the basic bottlings from Kim Crawford and Whitehaven. For under $10, give the Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc a try –- for the price, it’s quite enjoyable.

Chardonnay
Even though Chardonnay is America’s favorite wine, it gets a bad rap. The reason? When it’s bad, it’s really bad. And American wineries are putting out (and selling) a lot of over-oaked, slightly sweet terrible Chardonnay. Think about all that Franzia you drank in college. In the right hands, though, Chardonnay can produce wines with as much character as Pinot Noir.

For under $10, your best bet is Concha Y Toro’s “Central Valley” bottling (not California’s Central Valley – this wine is from Chile). For under $15, check out Kendall Jackson’s Vintner’s Reserve – its basic bottling. The wine is actually quite tasty! If you’re willing to go up to $20, you have a few more options – you can go up a step in Concha Y Toro’s lineup and purchase its “Marques de Casa Concha” bottling, or you can stick closer to home and go for La Crema’s Sonoma Coast Chardonnay. For just a couple more bucks, though, you can purchase Landmark’s “Overlook” Chardonnay – it blows away just about everything you can find for less than $40, and can be purchased for just over $20.

Rosé
Wine geeks love talking about how Rosé pairs perfectly with the summer. I prefer to spend my money on other wines – but there are plenty of really nice Rosés (with notes of strawberries and watermelons) out there. For $10, go out and grab yourself a bottle of Columbia Crest’s Two Vines Rosé. For a pink wine, it has a lot going on.

Zinfandel
Zinfandels are bold and heavy. So people often assume that the grape won’t go well with your summer barbecue. They’re wrong. Zinfandel doesn’t just handle meat and smoke – the varietal’s black pepper notes and acidity often elevate the food it’s served with. Your three best bets (all around $20) are Ravenswood’s  Napa Valley Old Vine Zinfandel, Murphy-Goode’s Sonoma County Liar’s Dice bottling, or Ridge’s Three Valleys Sonoma County. The Ridge will be the hardest to find – but it’s worth seeking out. Ridge pretty much wrote the book on high-quality Zinfandel, producing its first bottling in 1964.

Cabernet Sauvignon
If beer is proof that God loves us, than Cabernet Sauvignon is proof that God drinks wine when He eats steak. For right around $10, Columbia Crest’s Columbia Valley Grand Estates bottling is simply an astounding deal. Year in and year out, it garners critics’ praise for being a solid Cab at a great price. For closer to $20, check out Chateau Ste. Michelle’s Columbia Valley bottling or the Sonoma County offering from Sebastiani.

Remember that red wine should not be served at room temperature (unless you live in the basement of a French castle). Red wine shows best when served between 60 and 65 degrees – much cooler than the DC summer, and much cooler than you keep your home. This is especially important when drinking full-bodied reds outside in the summertime.

While wine geeks (like me) will likely praise unusual (and trendy) varietals like Albarino, Torrontes, and Vihno Verde this summer, it’ll be difficult to find such wines at Safeway or Harris Teeter. The wines mentioned above, though, will definitely be crowd pleasers -– and should be easy to find.

Am I missing anything? If you can think of any other affordable wines (that can be found at a Capitol Hill supermarket) that’ll knock your socks off for the price, be sure to let us know in the comments!