Days of wines and rosés

Summer wines are fine and reasonably priced

By TOM MARQUARDT

Kurt Clodfelter of Fishpaws Marketplace on Ritchie Highway is on the flyway to the ocean beaches. He often gets customers stopping by for a bottle of wine that goes well with sun, sand and simple foods. When asked, he usually reaches for vinho verde, a light wine from Portugal with crisp acidity.

The vinho verde is the summer favorite in Portugal. As Kurt says, if it works on Portuguese beaches, it should work here.

Crisp acidity gives wine definition when chilled and is the most important characteristic consumers should be seeking in wines to sip or pair with summer fare.

Kurt also recommends Prado Rey, a $12 Spanish oak-fermented rosé that is an interesting blend of tinto fino and merlot. Rosés are terrific sipping wines and Kurt says they go well with cold cuts.

With temperatures soaring high in the 80s, you need to offer guests — including the Bordeaux snobs — something to cool their interiors. Best of all, you don’t have to spend a lot of money, and summer wines are a lot more fun.

Because food often comes off the grill in summer, chefs have to watch their seasoning. Spicy seasoning, like Old Bay, can clobber delicate wines. If you’ve got hot spices, look to offset the food with white gewürztraminer or bold zinfandels. Even better, serve beer.

If it’s chicken or fresh rockfish on the grill, your choices are endless.

Rosés are the compromise wine for the red and white wine lover. A great value, these pink wines are dry (unlike white zinfandel) and can handle an ice bucket without muting the tantalizing nuances. They can be made from any red grape, but the most popular are the Rhone varieties: grenache, syrah, cinsault and mourvédre. Festive colors can range from a light peach to a bright cherry red.

Rosés are great for sipping — as Europeans do in the summer — and they are versatile with summer foods, like grilled chicken, pasta salads, salmon and fruit. You will be surprised how many of your uninitiated guests come back for a second glass.

For starters, you might consider serving a sparkling wine to welcome your guests. Although it is not as versatile with food, prosecco from Italy is becoming a very popular apertif. As it’s inexpensive and low in alcohol, you can serve a glass without overindulging your pocketbook or your guests.

As for white still wines, you need to determine what role you want your wine to play. Don’t assume an apertif will pair well with dinner. If you have an elegant fish dinner planned, you may want to serve a food-friendly and complex chardonnay. But a chardonnay is not the best for patio sipping, even though it’s probably the wine most commonly requested.

Instead, consider an Italian wine, particularly one that is light in body, like the fruity and aromatic gavi or soave. Pinot grigio has been the rage for the last couple of years, but it varies in quality so much that, as with a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. Some are too fruity; others are characterless.

A good white wine will have crisp acidity to offset the heat and cleanse the palate.

The wine often associated with fresh acidity is sauvignon blanc. These wines have grapefruit and herbal flavors that marry well with summer meals, especially fish.

If your ultimate destination is the table, then there are alternatives to chardonnay. Try a riesling from Alsace or Washington state. Dry rieslings offer delicate but piercing flavors that will add another dimension to the experience and even intrigue dinner guests accustomed to chardonnay.

There is also albariño from the northwest corner of Spain. These wines have great flavors and are a perfect match to shrimp, rockfish, scallops and more. Albariño is just a very interesting wine that offers something different for your guests to try.

You don’t have to avoid red wines — just be more selective.

Beaujolais is inexpensive, fruity and can even be chilled. Made from gamay grapes, this French wine is attractive in its simplicity. It goes well with hamburgers, pasta and other simple fare, but don’t try to match it with steak.

If you want a red wine to serve with the meal, consider pinot noir. It is more delicate than, say, cabernet sauvignon, but often has the heft to serve alongside beef. It is a perfect match with grilled salmon, tuna and chicken. Oregon pinot noirs are bolder in style for food pairings. They’re expensive, and aren’t the best for sipping.

If ribs are on the menu, zinfandel is your choice because of its jammy, forward-fruit flavor. Be careful, though, because zinfandel sports a higher alcohol content than most red wines.

Here are some producers to look for:

Chardonnay: Hess, Clos du Bois, Beringer, Patz & Hall, Simi.

Rosé: Chateau Grande Cassagne, Mas Carlot, Chateau Mourgues, Bonny Doon.

Prosecco: Fantinel, Riondo.

Gavi: Principessa, Pio Cesare,

Sauvignon blanc: Sauvignon Blanc Republic, Dry Creek Vineyards, Matua, Kim Crawford.

Beaujolais: Georges DuBoeuf, Joseph Drouhin.

Albariño: Martin Codax, Don Olegario, Gauda.

Pinot noir: Ponzi, Etude, Fess Parker, Domaine Serene, Byron.

Zinfandel: Cline Cellars, Ridge, Tablas Creek, Storybrook, Rosenblum.