Jancis Robinson’s summer wine recommendations

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Warmer summers mean riper grapes and ever earlier harvests for wine growers, but what do they mean for us wine drinkers?

For those determined to drink red wine, high temperatures pose a problem for flavour. Any drink should have an element of refreshment and it’s easily lost in a red that’s too warm. Once a wine gets much above 20C, it loses its precision and starts tasting more like soup. One of the most common faults in more casual bars and restaurants is to store and serve red wine too warm.

I often ask for an ice bucket to chill the bottle or, in extremis, an ice cube. In summer months (and winter if the room is warm), I routinely serve red wines straight out of what passes for our cellar, a small room kept at a steady 13C, or put the bottles in the fridge for half an hour before serving them.

Unless you live in a cold store, wine of any colour will warm up once it’s in the glass. The challenge is to stop it from warming too much, especially if eating outdoors in high summer. I love those vacuum-lined cylinders that keep bottles at a steady temperature; the transparent ones are especially useful if there are multiple bottles on the table (as there tend to be on mine).

All sorts of red wines benefit from a light chill, particularly those low in the natural preservative tannin, such as most young, inexpensive reds, mature rioja, most Pinot Noirs and lighter red burgundies. Softer Loire reds, Beaujolais and other Gamays, as well as the new class of juicy young reds described in certain quarters as “glou-glou”, are actively designed to be served fairly cool (a cellar-cold 13C).

You have to be a bit careful about chilling wines with lots of tannin, however, because their chewiness is emphasised at low temperatures. A typical young red bordeaux or north Italian Cabernet can taste like cold stewed tea if it’s served too cool.

A typical young red bordeaux or north Italian Cabernet can taste like cold stewed tea if it’s served too cool

Lower-alcohol reds and whites, expressly designed to be refreshing summer drinks, are becoming increasingly common, and we will see more of them in coming years. The UK government has announced that, from this August, duties levied on wine will be determined by alcoholic strength. Britain’s storage facilities are already seeing record amounts of wine cleared out of bonded warehouses at the current rates before the axe falls next month.

Duty on the vast majority of still wines (11.5 to 14.5 per cent alcohol) will rise by an extra 44p per bottle. Duty on wines labelled 15 per cent or more, which includes ports, sherries and quite a number of wines from California, the southern Rhône and some riper red bordeaux vintages, will rise by a massive 97p to £3.20 on every bottle. The government has decided to abandon the current extra duty on sparkling wines, so those with an alcoholic strength of only 8.5 per cent will fall by £1.05, and by 19p on a bottle of champagne.

The upshot of all this is that we Brits are likely to see an increase in the number of lower-alcohol options, of all colours and degrees of fizziness. It may even be that importers will encourage growers to pick their grapes earlier so that the resulting wines are less potent. This will please the health-conscious, but time on the vine builds flavour. I hope it doesn’t result in insipid wines.

No combination of grape and place is better for quintessentially summery wines at a low alcohol level and intense flavour than Riesling from northern Germany. Last month I had the pleasure of presenting 14 of the world’s top Rieslings and their makers to more than 500 wine lovers at the 10th Masters of Wine symposium in Wiesbaden. I can’t tell you how many people told me afterwards that the tasting had changed their previously low opinion of Riesling. The CEO of Bollinger confessed that he didn’t have a single bottle of Riesling in his personal cellar but will now be seeking them out.

The first two Rieslings that we tried particularly impressed this crowd of professional tasters. Both were grown by Egon Müller in the famous Scharzhofberger vineyard in the Saar valley near Luxembourg: a 2015 Kabinett (8.5 per cent) and a 2005 Auslese (7 per cent). They currently sell for about £140 and £450 a bottle respectively, but I have included some more affordable alternatives in my list of recommendations.

These lower-alcohol, aromatic, high-acid, unoaked whites are prime candidates to be served at refreshingly low temperatures (between 7C and 10C), but not all white wines respond well to a substantial chill. In general, the more potent a white wine is, the more of a waste it is to serve it under 10C. With wines such as a really full-bodied Chardonnay or Viognier, the all-important aroma and flavour will be subdued. A fine white burgundy such as Meursault, or anything with Montrachet in its name, is far from an ideal heatwave wine. If you must have Chardonnay, it would be better to head for one made in a cooler environment such as Chablis, the Sonoma Coast or Sta Rita Hills, which will have a lighter body and a higher level of refreshing acidity.

Sauvignon Blanc is an obvious alternative for those who find Riesling’s flavour too powerful but still seek the refreshment associated with elevated acidity. It seems to be becoming more popular too: in California, Sauvignons have been replacing Chardonnays on wine lists. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Sancerre, the archetypal Sauvignon Blanc, is currently the wine of choice in the Bay Area. Its neighbour, Pouilly-Fumé, remains under-appreciated, as do, strangely, the better-value alternatives made in nearby Menetou-Salon and Reuilly.

The best New Zealand and South African Sauvignons come into their own in high summer. Their pungent aromas survive aggressive chilling, and their ocean-induced acidity should provide the invigoration needed. Don’t be shy of putting the fresh into refreshment.

Tasting notes, scores and suggested drink dates on Purple Pages of JancisRobinson.com. Some international stockists on Wine-searcher.com

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