As someone who spends a great deal of time recommending wines to go with food, I don’t often dwell on bottles that taste great on their own, or at least as a precursor to a meal, but now is the time of year to do it.
The French, of course, have a whole category of drinks for l’apero, most notably pastis, but for me it’s a glass of wine, usually white, that really hits the spot. Generally lighter than a wine you’d drink with a meal, refreshingly high in acid, but often with a beguiling touch of sweetness, these are wines that come into their own in high summer.
Mosel riesling, a wine that barely features on supermarket shelves these days, comes high up the list. The best don’t come cheap, but they are airily light (around 8% abv) and age for years. I was recently blown away by Willi Haag Braunneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett 2013 (8.5% abv), which is the sort of wine to sip on a punt or while slowly chugging up a river on a summer evening. Two London merchants stock it: the Salusbury Wine Store at £15.99 and Park Vintners at £16.79.
Riesling royalty aside, off-dry wines tend to be reasonably priced. Good examples are the fragrant, floral Château Vartely Feteasca Regala 2015 (£5.75, the Wine Society; 12.5% abv), from Moldova. (Asda also stocks an 11.5% abv one in its Wine Atlas range for £4, but that’s non-vintage, which may mean it has been on the shelf for a while); Aldi’s Exquisite Collection Clairette 2015 (£5.99; 12.5% abv), from Jean Claude Mas in the Languedoc; and Torres’ exotically grapey Days Of Summer Muscat 2015 (£6.99, Co-op, Majestic; 12% abv), from Chile’s Itata region – that would be good with a cold noodle salad. I also like the fragrant Varvaglione Malvasia del Salento 2015 (£9.95, Great Western Wine; 12.5% abv), which one friend vouches goes with Indian food.
English whites, though more expensive, also hit that summer spot: try the aromatic Three Choirs Cellar Door Release Siegerrebe 2014 (£13.05 direct from the winery; 12% abv), which reminds me of a flowery, Alsace sylvaner, though its parents are apparently savagnin rose and madeleine angevine (and if you can’t come up with a crack about that, I’ll be genuinely disappointed).
If you prefer your whites bone-dry, however, try the piercingly intense Cutizzi Greco di Tufo 2014 (13% abv) from Campani’s highly rated Feudi San Gregorio – at £15, that’s a surprisingly ambitious buy on the part of Morrisons, which was recently voted Wine Supermarket of the Year by the International Wine Challenge; you can also get it for £16.50 from winedirect.co.uk.
