I’ve been taking a summer vacation from the blog for a few weeks, and as I’m reemerging this week, I think it’s only appropriate to toast with a bottle of bubbly. 

Today we’re going way, way, way Down Under. We’re picking up our exploration of Australian wine, and we’re going about as far south in the country as you can go to Tasmania. Australia’s Island State is known for its Devils, gorgeous scenery, and incredibly clean air. It’s also a pretty ideal place to make sparkling wine – so let’s go ahead and pop a bottle!

Cheers!

An Intro to Tassie Wine

Map borrowed from WineFolly.com

Tassie wines are still somewhat undiscovered gems. They represent less than 1% of Australia’s wine production, but they’re known for their quality, and as a result, this is one Australian winemaking region where demand outpaces supply. 

Despite the production numbers being small, winemaking history goes back to the early days of Australia’s European settlement. Its first vineyards were planted in 1823 – which gives it a potential claim over the Hunter Valley, which is generally cited as Australia’s oldest region. The issue is that after its early start, winemaking on the island pretty much dried up for about a century starting in the second half of the 1800s and then reemerged in the 1950s, so it hasn’t been continuous. 

Tasmania is way down south – located between the southern parallels of  40° and 44° latitude, about 150 miles (240 km) off the coast of Victoria. As you can probably imagine, things get can get chilly around these parts, so the grapes they focus on as pretty different from much of the rest of mainland Australia. Rather than Shiraz, Grenache, and Cabernet Sauvignon which like the heat, we see grapes that like the cool maritime climate take center stage here. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay take the top spots for plantings, and those are followed by Sauv Blanc, Pinot Gris, and Riesling. (We saw this in the Yarra Valley* in Victoria, and now we’re even farther south.) 

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay also happen to be the grapes most traditionally used for traditional method sparkling wines, and much like Champagne, cooler climates tend to be perfect for making bubbly as the grapes retain lots of crisp acidity. Lo and behold, Tasmania has developed a reputation for making some of the country’s best sparkling wines. Moreover, Australia’s first sparkling wine was made in Tasmania in 1826.

Tasmania’s landscape is dominated by dolerite-capped mountains which give the island its complex geography with many varying terroirs and micro-climates. Most notably, the mountains on the western side create a rain shadow that blocks the majority of rain from hitting the island’s seven major growing areas: North West, Tamar Valley, Pipers River, East Coast, Coal River Valley, Derwent Valley, Huon Valley / d'Entrecasteaux Channel. 

Thanks to the shifting and colliding of continents, plus volcanoes, and the movements of bodies of water, Tasmania’s soils are incredibly diverse. If you have a few minutes to geek out, check out this video for a mind-bending look at their geology.

The Wine: Jansz Premium Cuvée Brut Tasmania 

Alcohol: 12%  | Price: $19.99 (Purchased at K&L) 

Jansz Tasmania has been solely focused on sparkling winemaking since 1986. Champagne house Louis Roederer saw similarities between the climate in the Pipers River region, where the original vineyards are located, and that of Champagne, and they decided to partner with the owners of Heemskerk Wines to create Tasmania’s first premium, traditional method sparkling wine house. The Hill-Smith family purchased the property in 1998 and they’ve established it as one of the most highly regarded family-owned sparkling wine houses in Australia. 

The winery’s name pays homage to Tasmania’s namesake, the Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman who first sighted the island in 1642. When the vineyards were first established in 1975, they were named after Tasman’s ship, the Heemskerk. 

Image borrowed from Jansz's website.

The Pipers River region has a maritime climate but also gets a lot of sunshine hours, making it excellent for grape-growing. Cool winds from the Bass-Strait also helps to moderate temperatures in the vineyards from becoming too extreme both in the summer and winter, resulting in a long, cool, sunny growing season that allows the grapes to ripen slowly and develop their flavors.  The Janz vineyards here sit on a bed of free-draining red basalt soils, which also adds to the minerality of the wines. 

The wines are made in traditional method and they've put a little spin on the "Méthode Champenoise" and call their take "Méthode Tasmanoise":

Méthode Tasmanoise is the embodiment of every aspect of our unique place. It goes beyond terroir, beyond winemaking. Méthode Tasmanoise encapsulates our Tasmanian way of life and our respect for our environment, the natural wilderness, our clean air, fertile soils, pristine waters, the untamed oceans. It celebrates our unique crafts and the synergy between our wares and our surrounds. Most of all, Méthode Tasmanoise embraces the people that call our island state their home

The Hill-Smith family owns several wineries around Australia and they are all run sustainably. They lay out quite a few of the details of their practices here. The particular bottling we’re talking about today is certified sustainable and vegan friendly.

We opened the Jansz Premium Cuvée Brut Tasmania NV and were greeted with notes of lemon cream and apple blossom on the nose. On the palate, the wine was crisp and bright with a mixture of crunchy green and gold apples, lemon juice and curd, white peach, a hint of berry, a touch of toast and brown sugar, and lots of salinity.

For the price, this is a lovely bottle of bubbly.

Geeky Details

The Pairing: Lobster Tartines with Leeks and Mushrooms

In looking up what foods are commonly grown and produced in Tasmania, I discovered that it is one of the world’s leading suppliers of lobster and abalone. Pairing this bubbly with buttery lobster seemed like a perfect way to go! 

Lobster need not be fancy. In this case, I decided to serve it on grilled bread as a tartine, or open-faced sandwich, topped with sautéed leeks and mushrooms that I thought would bring out the wine’s more earthy notes and tease out hints of herbal flavors. In the end, the dish I came up with to pair with this wine is more about assembly rather than any elaborate cooking.

I ran into one tiny snag when I went to the grocery store – no lobster. No abalone either. I found my solution in the freezer section via Luke’s Lobster pre-packaged knuckle and claw meat. It proved quite tasty and very convenient. (I was addicted to Luke’s Lobster rolls when we lived in New York.) I simply thawed the meat and tossed it all in warm, melted butter and heated it gently, then sprinkled it with a bit of included seasoning. 

The only thing on this dish that required real preparation was the leeks and mushrooms, and that only requires only a few ingredients and little attention. Despite this, the combo becomes really saucy and flavorful. I use the same mix in many different ways including to top all kinds of proteins, mixed into a grain bowl, on a sandwich, or in an omelet or quiche. If you add more stock or water it becomes a fabulous base for a soup, and if you stir in a touch of cream when it comes off the heat, it's fabulously completely decadent. 

In this case, as I mentioned, I layered the leeks and mushrooms on slices of buttery grilled bread, along with arugula, and the buttery lobster meat. The pairing was just lovely and worked even better than I’d hoped. The wine would show different facets with each bite. With the buttery sweet lobster meat the plumper, riper fruits note would come out. The char on the bread at times brought out the wine’s toastiness. At other times, earthier and more minerally notes came out to play. Mostly, it was simply delicious and refreshing with the tartines. 

***** 

*****

The rest of the World Wine Travel blogging group (#WorldWineTravel) is exploring the wines from Tasmania, as well as other Aussie Sparklers and Stickies this month. Check out the rest of their posts:

• Lori is tasting “Tasmanian Sparkling and Egg Rolls” at Exploring the Wine Glass
• Camilla is showcasing “Tasmania + Hawaii: Celebrating with an Island Wine and Island Eats” at Culinary Adventures with Camilla 
• Jeff shares how we can “Discover Rutherglen Stickies” at Food Wine Click!
• Robin is pairing “Sparkling Wine from Jansz Tasmania and a Tassie-inspired seafood curry pie” at Crushed Grape Chronicles
• Kat has a “Surprise! South Australia Pét-Nat is on the Rise” at The Corkscrew Concierge
• Susannah is featuring “Tasmanian Chardonnay” at Avvinare
• Deanna is popping an “Australian Sparkling Wine from Deviation Road” at Wineivore
• Linda is having “Sparkling Aussie Shiraz as summer draws to a close” at My Full Wine Glass

Last month we started an exploration of Australia’s Hunter Valley with a trip down memory lane of the brief months we spent living in Sydney and a visit to Hope Estate. Today we’re continuing the journey with a look at my other favorite stop from the visits we made to the Hunter Valley: Tyrrell’s.

It was hot and muggy out when we visited Tyrrell’s Wines on Christmas Eve in 2009. Walking outside felt like moving through soup. My mother-in-law Carolyn and my good friend Marc were both visiting, taking advantage of the final weeks of our stay in Oz. Thinking that wine tasting would be an activity that could please everyone in the group, we headed up to the Hunter Valley, but the intensity of the summer’s heat and humidity was formidable and it did us all in. We ended up cutting our day short and I recall us all being kind of grumpy and sticky on the drive back to Sydney. The fact that Tyrrell’s stands out as a bright spot in the day says a lot. The wines were good enough to cut through all the bad moods and stuck in my memory as my favorite winery visited during our time in New South Wales. 

Marc, Greg, and Carolyn at Tyrrell's on the day we visited. Everyone has a bit of a sheen from the heat, but we hadn't yet melted at this point in the day.

Happily, these days I’m also able to fairly easily find their wines stateside. 

HUNTER VALLEY’S TERROIR

Last month we took a look at the history of Australia’s oldest wine region – check out this post for more background. This month we’ll take a look at the terroir. 

Hunter Valley’s climate is a bit of an anomaly for a wine region. We simply weren’t unlucky in picking an unfortunate day to visit the area – the heat and humidity are defining characteristics of the region’s climate. This isn’t a combo you usually look for in a fine wine region. Grapes like a temperate climate that allow them enough heat and sunshine to allow them to ripen, balanced with time to cool off so as to maintain acidity. Grapevines also shut down in extreme heat.  For this reason, most fine wine regions sit between 30° and 50° latitude. The Hunter Valley is right at the edge of this range, sitting at a latitude of 32/33°S.

Zeroing a bit further. Map courtesy of Wineaustralia.com.

Wet conditions can also bring problems. First off, disease pressures from things like molds and fungus go up in wetter conditions. Also, if grapes take in a lot of water from rain close to harvest time, the juice inside can become diluted and less flavorful. 

Luckily, there are several mitigating factors to help conditions in the Hunter Valley. Cloud cover and gentle breezes from the Pacific Ocean tend to roll into the area from the coast in the afternoon. Evenings also grow cooler during the fall and winter. It also tends to rain quite a bit during the growing season, which also helps to cool things off and give the grapes a break. Thankfully, most of the rain comes during the summer, although rain at harvest can definitely be a problem. As you might guess, climate change is also a definite concern in this area.

This image is of Tyrrell's Old Patch Vineyard (borrowed from their site). It was planted in 1867, making it almost 150 years old. It is the oldest vineyard in NSW and one of the oldest in the world.

The terrain for most of the Hunter Valley is made up of gently sloping hills with the Hunter River and its tributaries running throughout it. Many of the most prestigious vineyards are located in the foothills and valley of the Brokenback Range, which is part of the Great Dividing Range. The terrain of the Upper Hunter area is considerably flatter than other sections. The Goulburn River (a major tributary of the Hunter) runs through the region and helps to provide water for irrigation in the drier parts of the region. 

The Hunter Valley sits on an ancient seabed, giving it rich and diverse soils. Volcanic soils also run through various parts of the region. Pokolbin, where our winery today is located, has red volcanic soils on sites on higher ground that is particularly good for Shiraz. White grapes like Sémillon and Chardonnay tend to be planted on white sands and loam located on the lower ground. 

A BIT ABOUT SÉMILLON

Sémillon is an interesting grape. Wines made from this variety tend to undergo complete personality changes as they age, even more so than most other grapes. When they’re young, the wines show lots of citrus, green apple, and peach, along with notes of blanched almond, beeswax, or a lanolin component that gives the grape a lot of texture and mouthfeel.  As the wines age, the flavors deepen and become riper, deeper, honeyed, and more tropical, and the nutty flavors become toastier. They’ll also often start to taste like they spent time in oak, even when the wine never got close to a barrel. 

The Hunter Valley is a benchmark region for the grape. (In general, we look to Bordeaux and Australia for the premier examples of this variety.) The style the Hunter Valley is known for doesn’t seem like it should be possible under the growing conditions – super zesty, bright, and crisp. The typical Hunter Valley Sémillon (HVS) is picked early, handled gently to reduce skin and seed extract, fermented at cold temperatures in stainless steel, and is then transferred to bottles as soon as fermentation stops. As a result of being picked early, the wines tend to be lower in alcohol – around 10 to 11%. Wine Australia describes the HVS in this way:

When first bottled, Hunter Valley Semillon is almost water-white in appearance with aromas of citrus, grass, straw, lanolin, and subtle green herbs. It’s crisp and delicate with a chalky minerality. Patience pays great dividends, however, and the finest examples with high acidity and low alcohol transform after as little as five years in bottle, revealing honeyed, toasty, grilled nut characters – almost as if the wine has spent time in oak (even though it hasn’t). It’s these wines that make Hunter Valley Semillon one of the wine world’s great collectible wonders. Prices of these age-worthy Semillons are well within reach of most wine lovers and, under the right conditions, the transformation that occurs over time is substantial. The key point of difference in aged Hunter Valley Semillon is that the best examples will retain an identifiable stamp of primary fruit and a nucleus of fine acidity even after decades in the cellar.

The acidity is so racy in Hunter Valley Sémillons that they were often referred to as Hunter Rieslings – don’t let this confuse you, it is a different grape. The typical style here is dry, however, the grape is susceptible to botrytis and the humid conditions in many parts of the Hunter Valley are perfect for it, so excellent sweet versions are also made here.  

TYRRELL’S WINES

Tyrrell’s history dates back to the early days of wine production in the Hunter Valley, and by extension, Australia. It shares the position of being the second oldest continuously owned and operated family winery in Australia. Edward Tyrrell settled on the original property and began planting Shiraz and Sémillon in 1858. He harvested the grapes for his first vintage in 1864. The company has been handed down through four generations and is now managed by Bruce Tyrrell. He began working at the winery in 1974, at the age of twenty-three alongside his father Murray. 

Throughout his long career, he has become a major force in Australian wine. In 2006, Bruce Tyrrell was recognized with an Order of Australia medal for his contribution to the Australian wine industry; improving grape quality, research, tourism, and export opportunities. In 2009, he was named a Hunter Valley Living Legend at the Hunter Valley Wine Industry Awards. He is also currently a Director of the Hunter Valley Wine and Tourism Association and the Hunter Valley Research Foundation. His children Jane, John, and Christopher are all currently working in the business, taking it into its fifth generation.

Tyrrell’s puts a large focus on sustainability and has built a program that takes into account sustainable vineyard management and seeks to reduce energy usage, water consumption, and waste. They established their Environmental Management System in 2009 and they lay out the following stats showing their improvements in energy usage since that time:

Since 2009, we’ve achieved a 68 percent reduction in our fuel usage and a 70 percent reduction in our consumption of coal-fired electricity, which adds up to a 70 percent reduction in our total greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of more than 2,700 tonnes of carbon dioxide. This translates to a 32 percent reduction in our greenhouse gas emissions per liter of wine produced.

In recent years, they’ve also focused on reducing waste and note that their recycling program has resulted in a 60 percent reduction in the amount of solid waste sent to landfill. They also dry-farm whenever possible, with about 90% of their vineyards being unirrigated. Wastewater is collected and recycled. These are only a few examples of their sustainability efforts. They lay out their practices in great detail on their website here. (I always appreciate it when a winery takes the time to share the nitty-gritty of their sustainability practices.)

They also point to the fact that they have a high percentage of old vines that are healthy and continue to produce quality wine as a good indicator of the sustainability of their vineyard management practices – 36% percent of their vines are more than 50 years old and 11% are more than 100 years old. 

The grapes for their Hunter Valley Semillon come from a selection of their top Sémillon vineyards around the valley, with an average vine age of 40 years. The wine is made very much in the classic style for the region – grapes are gently pressed and then fermented in stainless steel tanks. The wine then spends a short amount of time on its lees to gain extra complexity and mouth feel. It sees no oak during fermentation or maturation. Additional details for the current vintage here and for the 2015 vintage here.

We recently opened a bottle of Tyrrells’ Hunter Valley Semillion 2016 and at six years old it was still in firmly in its youthful vibrancy and hadn’t started to move into the secondary characteristics, showing the longevity of this grape. On the nose, it showed notes of lemon, lime, green apple, and blanched almond. All those notes came back on the palate with the citrus notes expressing themselves in both juice and a bit pith. The wine had the characteristic lanolin/beeswax texture that gave it a medium body and it had a chalky minerality carried through the finish. There was also plenty of acidity to keep things vibrant. The alcohol level was characteristically low at 11%. As the wine warmed up, notes of white peach emerged and the wine’s mouthfeel plumped up and broadened a bit more.  

I think this is a great example of the style at a great price. I can’t recall what I paid for this bottle as it was a couple of years ago, but the price usually hovers around $20ish. (Wine_searcher.com lists the average price for this vintage at $24, and $18 for all vintages.)  I can’t help but wish I’d purchased another bottle to open in a few more years to see where it goes. 

I often see Tyrrell’s wines at K & L  and on Wine.com, or use Wine-Searcher.com to find additional options.

THE PAIRING: SEARED SALMON STEAKS WITH LEMON MYRTLE, LIME, & MACADAMIA OIL 

Usually, when I share a “Cooking to the Wine” post, I taste the wine and then create a recipe from scratch to match the wine based on that tasting. This time I thought I’d show how you can do essentially the same thing by selecting a recipe and tweaking it just a bit to match the wine. In this case, I decided to explore a cookbook I bought during our time in Sydney – Rainforest to Table - A Taste of the Bush by Jill Richardson. The books seek to help the reader incorporate native Australian herbs, spices, and fruits in contemporary cooking. The nice thing is that nowadays, it’s much easier to get your hands on many of the ingredients the book discusses via a simple search on the internet. Amazon has quite a few. 

Since this wine seemed like it would be a safe match for many kinds of seafood, I decided to start in that section of the book. I very quickly found a recipe for tuna steaks that featured lime juice, herbs, and macadamia nuts, all of which seemed like they’d resonate with elements I tasted in the wine. Zesty lime was a shoo-in, and macadamia nuts seemed like a good choice since they’re a lighter-tasting nut, much like the blanched almond. I made a few tweaks based on the availability of ingredients and what I thought would work with the wine. The original recipe called for stronger use of chilis, but I chose to tone this down as spicy heat is often tricky to pair with wines. As it turns out, I think this wine could have handled a bit more, so feel free to turn it up a bit if you’d like. I thought the wine’s texture would match nicely with a meatier fish like tuna. Unfortunately, the grocery store was out of tuna steaks, so I went with salmon instead and these worked quite well – feel free to use either.

Lemon myrtle, the herb the recipe showcased, comes from a sub-tropical rainforest tree. The leaves are the part most commonly used, as is the case here, but the flowers and seeds can also be used. The leaves are most typically dried and used ground. It has a strong lemon/lime flavor with warm, savory herbal notes. If you can’t find it, lemongrass should make a good substitute.

The company that produced the book makes a Lemon Myrtle Lime and Chilli infused Macadamia Oil that was included in the original recipe and sounds delicious. 

I loved this pairing. The lemon myrtle, lime, and macadamia nuts all mirrored flavors in the wine, just as I’d hoped they would, and the herbs along with the greens in the accompanying simple salad brought out herbal notes in the wine. The char on the grilled salmon provided a nice counterbalance to all of the citrusy flavors and resonated well with the wine's beeswax texture.  

*****

*****

The rest of the World Wine Travel (#WorldWineTravel) Blogging Group is exploring white wines from New South Whales this month. Check out the rest of their posts for more great pairings:

• Jeff with Food Wine Click is sharing "Why Does WSET Love Hunter Valley Semillon?"
• Wendy with A Day in the Life on the Farm shares "Yellow Tail Wine Round 2 and the Weekly Menu"
• Terri of Our Good Life shares "Simply Summer's Best: BBQ Pork Steaks and Rock It Like a Redhead Sauvignon Blanc"
• Nicole at Somm's Table shares "Tyrrell's Hunter Valley Semillon and Seared Salmon Steaks"
• Gwendolyn Alley of Wine Predator shares "Burning Man 2022: Waking Dreams, Secretly Abandoned Spaces, Minstrel Cramp, and the Fox in the Henhouse"
• Deanna with Wineivore shares "Korean Bar Snacks with Biodynamic Somos Orange Verdehlo Wine"
• Cam of Culinary Adventures with Cam shares "A Sémillon from New South Wales + A Snack from Japan"

Sunny, summer days require particular wines. Moreover, the criteria that go into selecting wines for easy, breezy days whether they’re spent by the water, picnicking, or on an outdoor adventure, are very different than what’s needed at other times of the year. I take this selection very seriously, and criteria number one is that the wine has to be fun! 

Certain types of wines just naturally step into the role of a party starter. Bubblies, crisp whites, and chillable reds call to me and say “hey, let’s have a good time!” Packaging and closures also play more of a role at this time of year than at any other. I want it to be as easy as possible to get at that vino, so screw caps, bottle caps, and portable packaging like cans are extra desirable. If a wine can combine elements from both of these camps, well, there’s a summertime winner!

Today, I’m rounding up five favorite summertime wines that combine some of these attributes, plus a bonus extra, to inspire more good times. All of these have wonderful memories attached to them, which of course, makes me love them even more. 

I will note that in the Bay Area, “summer” kind of pops in and out throughout the year, not always in the actual summer, and definitely stretching way into the fall, so the memories shared here kind of take that looser interpretation of the season. 

Sparkling Wine + Bottle Cap: Carboniste Sparkling Pinot Noir and Albariño

Price: Both $28

Carboniste makes some of my very favorite “happy day” wines. Dan and Jacqueline Person are the husband and wife team behind Carboniste, and they bring a fresh perspective to sparkling winemaking. As described on their website, they “are dedicated to making sparkling wines that are modern and reflective of grape and place.” Most of their bubblies are made in the traditional method, but they want the quality of the fruit to take center stage rather than the toasty notes that come from autolysis. 

This is even more true for their “critter line.” In the case of their Octopus Sparkling Albariño and Sea Urchin Sparkling Rosé of Pinot Noir, the wines are made in the traditional method, but they only spend a few months on the lees after being bottled (4 months and 2 months respectively), so that what you’re tasting is really bright fruit. Don’t get me wrong, I love the toasty notes in other traditional method sparkling wines, but these wines are just so likable and full of personality. They’re both dry and crisp but are also bursting with fruit. In the case of the Pinot, it’s cherries, strawberries, guava, and watermelon rind, while the Albraiño tastes of peaches, lemon, and sea spray. It’s a sunny day at the beach in a bottle.  

If you invite me to a pool party in the summertime, there’s a very good chance that I will show up with one of their bottles. They were with me at two of the funnest pool parties I’ve been to in recent years. The rosé came with me to a pool day a group of my girlfriends planned for my 40th birthday, and the Albariño came along to a pool weekend getaway we had with several couples that was full of giggle fits.

Carboniste’s bottles are also under crown bottle caps, so it takes all of about 5 seconds to get at that tasty juice.

Additional details for the Pinot Noir here and for the Albariño here.

As another alternative, Pét Nats  also fit bill quite nicely.

Crisp White + Screw Cap: Nortico Alvarinho

Average Price: $15 

I love an impromptu dinner party. A pool day that magically turns into a dinner party is even better. Last summer, Greg’s brother Dave and his wife Julia were staying at a house with a pool and they invited us over to hang out for the day. Once the sun started to go down, we all drifted inside to make dinner. The last thing you want to do in a situation like this is to deal with a fussy, complicated meal. You want it to be fresh, delicious, and easy. I set about making a Caprese salad while Dave made a delicious and incredibly simple shrimp dish, and we grilled some bread to accompany it all. So delicious, so easy. You’ll find a non-recipe for the shrimp at the bottom. 

The food and the occasion were all calling for a crisp white wine to pair alongside, so I cracked open a bottle of Nortico Alvarinho Minho 2019 from Portugal. It’s basically a Vinho Verde (which covers the same territory as the DOC of Minho), but I suspect the production method put it outside Vinho Verde regulations. For one, this wine is completely still and has no added CO2, which is often the case for other Vinho Verdes. The goal here is to achieve and richer style, although the wine is still very crisp and bright, full of notes of peaches and citrus. It’s 100% Alvarinho – and as you might guess, Alvarinho/Albariño is one of my favorite summer grapes. 

It was perfect with our dinner, but for more pairing ideas, the winery gives the following additional recommendations: “Have it simply with corn bread and butter like country folks do in Portugal. Also a terrific seafood wine, particularly with salty, fattier dishes like fish tacos or broiled oysters.” All perfect summer fare.

The grapes are sustainably grown and you can find additional details here. 

Find more related to Albariño here and here, and Vinho Verde here. Txakolina and Riesling are two more summer favorites. 

Rosé + Screw Cap: August Kessler Rosé 

I’m not sure it’s possible to get through the summer without rosé. Can you even call it summer if there is no rosé? I make no bones about the fact that I love rosés in many styles and from around the world.  I find that versions from Austria and Germany, like this August Kessler Pinot Noir Rosé Rheingau 2018, often have a little extra bouncy, bright quality to the fruit. This one had notes of strawberries, cherries, and a touch of peach. Bonus, screw cap for easy opening is par for the course with a lot if not most rosés from these countries. 

I enjoyed this one while sprawled out on the lawn gabbing with girlfriends on the lawn at the Culinary Cabin at Lake Tahoe. 

Find additional details on the wine here. 

For just a few of my many rosé-related posts, check out:

• 2 oz Pours: Looking at the World Through Rosé Colored Glasses
  
• Cooking to the Wine: Ultimate Provence Urban Rosé with Herbed Sous Vide Chicken Breasts and Roasted Eggplant Sheet Pan
  
• 2 oz Pours: Rosé After Labor Day
  
• Cooking to the Wine: Acquiesce Grenache Rosé with a Glazed Stuffed Pork Loin Roast (And A Visit to the Winery)
  

Chillable Red: Tessier Winery Soul Love 

Price: $30

I’ve shared wines made by friend Kristie Tacey of Tessier Winery before (read my interview with her here), and I love her wines in general, but in the last few years she’s added a small collection of what I lovingly like to refer to as “trippy wines” and I LOVE these. Her chillable red Soul Love is one of the trippiest and has been one of my very favorites since she started making it three years ago. The blend changes a little bit every year. The 2020 vintage pictured above was a blend of Riesling, Trousseau, and Mourvedre, while the 2021 is made up of Riesling, Mourtaou (aka Cabernet Pfeffer) and Merlot. As the blend changes, the flavors change as well, and it’s always a bit hard to describe, but let’s go with a super chuggable, magical fruit punch of strawberries, guava, berries, flowers, a hint of pineapple, and citrus fruits. (The 2021 also has a bit more tannic grip on the finish.)

This is another “happy day” wine for me that I’ll reach for during fun times or when we’re just hanging out and I happen to be in a particularly good mood. It pairs pretty easily with lots of foods. I’ve had it match easily with a roasted chicken topped with everything from a slightly sweet soy-chili glaze, bool kogi beef, pizza, and it’s even not half bad with buffalo chicken wings – not an easy food to pair. 

Chillable reds are pretty great that way. They pair with a lot of foods you really want a red wine with, but without all the heaviness that goes with a big red wine. I don’t know about you, but I typically just can’t stomach a big, alcoholic red when I’m standing around in the sun.  There are a lot of grapes that generally can take a light chill – Gamay, for example – but nowadays you can also find lots of great examples from winemakers deliberately making wines for this purpose. A lot of times, they’re crazy blends like this one, or sometimes they’re single-variety wines made in a style that sits between rosé and typical versions they might make from that grape.

On her website, she describes it as her  “glou glou” wine (it is!) and  “is a tribute to David Bowie and the ideal picnic wine.”

All of Kristie’s wines are vegan, made from sustainably grown grapes, and natural. More info here.

My friend Adriana and I recently helped pour at one of Kristie's release parties at a rooftop venue here in Oakland. The "trippy" wines were center stage and tasting fabulous.

Cans: Maker Wines 

Prices Vary.

It’s really hard to beat a canned wine for portability and convenience. They’re also perfect to pack out for a stealthy drink, when you don’t want to open a whole bottle, and/or when you don’t want to deal with glass. It’s lucky that there are more and more producers making quality versions. And then there are some trying to take it to the next level. Enter Maker Wines. This female-run company has a great mission: 

We started Maker to offer premium wine sans the snobbery. To highlight interesting varietals crafted by award-winning small producers. To tell the story of the producer that hand crafted your wine. And to package up “wine for one” in earth-conscious cans. Because we believe high-end wine isn’t just for the wealthy, distribution shouldn’t just be for the big guys, and great stories—like great wines—are meant to be shared.

Basically, they partner with quality small producers and package their wines in sleek cans,  and tell their stories via their website and info provided packaged with the wines. Even better, a lot of the wines are made from sustainably farmed grapes and/or are made by women, LGBTQ, or minority winemakers, and the info is clearly listed on the website.  The rosé pictured, which had notes of cherries, tangerines, and flowers, and the Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc – which I really enjoyed, but isn’t pictured –  were made by Chris Christensen of Bodkin. The Chenin Blanc, which had notes of white peaches, honeysuckle, and lemons is made by Colleen Sullivan Clothier of Revolutions Wines. 

We enjoyed these cans of their Rosé and their Chenin Blanc on a walk while taking in an AMAZING sunset while staying just outside Joshua Tree.

Find more on canned wines here and here.

Bonus Round: Mommenpop Blood Orange Spritz!

Price: $38

I brought back a spritz’n habit from our trip to Italy a few years ago. Thoughts of enjoying them on various piazzas at sunset around the country are among my favorite memories of our trip. I still continue to drink them throughout the summer. It’s fun to give them a twist by playing with different vermouths and bitter aperitifs. I love the Mommenpop line of aperitifs made by Samantha Sheehan, the winemaker of Poe and Ultraviolet (I recommend both),  and her husband designer Michael McDermott. They use a lot less sugar than most versions you’ll see out there and they don’t add any dyes. My favorite is the Blood Orange, but they’re all really delicious. 

We drank these with Dave and Julia by the pool on the same day the Nortico Alvarinho up at the top.

Cheers to a happy summer!  

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The rest of the Wine Pairing Weekend Blogging Group (#WinePW) is exploring summer sippers this month. Check out the rest of their posts: 

• Camilla’s posting “A Casual Feast and Canned Wines: Bo Ssäm + Two Shepherds' 2021 Maxzilla Piquette” at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Wendy is “Sipping Rosé and Enjoying Summertime” at A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Terri’s got “Summer Time Canned Sparkling Prosecco and Pepperdew Bites” at Our Good Life
• Gwendolyn’s going with “Orange Wines for Summer Times from Austria, Mexico, Oregon, Paso Robles” at Wine Predator
• Jane offers “Summertime Nibbles with Prosecco” at Always Ravenous
• Andrea is “Sipping Pretty this Summer with Emir and Trail Mix” at The Quirky Cork
• Jeff says “Add Some Pop! to Your Summer of Rosé” at Food Wine Click!  
• Kat insists “Schiava is the Perfect Summer Red Wine for Grilling” at The Corkscrew Concierge
• Finally, Linda serves up “Washington Pinot Gris for chilling on a lazy summer afternoon” at My Full Wine Glass