Summer drinking, a users guide

Think of the wines you pack for your summer holiday the same way you do the books you take to read on the beach.

Summer wines should be bright and breezy, satisfying without being overly complex.

These are our languid days, sun scorched (mostly) and linked loosely with unravelling string.

These are days when being sun-smart means knowing when that orb has passed the yardarm and nobody has to utter the words, “I’d better not have another, I’m working ­tomorrow”.

So at this time of year we seek wines with the capacity for consumption in quantity.

Not the stuff that fuels benders – this column has finally learned the meaning of “responsible service” – but rather those wines that have an ease and grace to them that means reaching for a second glass somehow becomes reaching for a second bottle.

January wines are very different creatures from those we seek out in June. They have different energies, different textures and different shapes. That’s because we ask of them different things.

Think of the wines you pack for your summer holiday the same way you do the books you take to read on the beach.

You want them bright and breezy, satisfying without being overly complex and when they’re finished they leave you wanting a sequel.

Here are a few suggestions:

   

Wines that blush

Pink wines are more popular than ever and most of the growth in the category is driven by wines exhibiting paler pinks than the nightclub bright wines we drank a few years ago.

Think a ballerina’s tutu rather than a drag queen’s lipstick.

They work so well at this time of year, not just through their ability to take us to Provence for a few fleeting moments but also because they can deliver the chilled pleasures of white wine with the gentle squeeze of tannins drawn from their red grape origins.

Until he started making some of Australia’s best pink wines under the Mazi label, Alex Katsaros was best known for having bowled a single over for the Abbotsford Anglers Cricket Club and collecting his hat from the umpire after those six balls with figures of 0-36.

His rose is much better than his wrong’un, and the 2023 Mazi Grenache Rose ($28) bundles up everything that’s great about contemporary Australian rose.

It’s beautifully framed and finely balanced, offering up dried red berries and a hint of blood orange too, and tapers well through a long and invigorating finish. This is a wine that takes fun seriously and it might just be one of the best pink wines on the planet.

     

Wines that pucker up

Acidity is crucial in wines at any time, but there’s something about the stretched days of summer that seems to accentuate the way acidity in wine acts like a plunge pool for the palate.

When I turn all Timothy Leary and go off in search of acid, riesling is usually my ­destination.

Whether it’s the classically dry and citrus-driven style we do so well in regions like the Clare Valley or Great Southern, or the nervy off-dry styles from places like Germany’s precarious Mosel River valley, riesling’s inherent energy, invigor­ating acidity and bracing fresh­ness make it the default choice for the national pastime of drinking white wine in the sun.

But for a varietal twist on the freshness paradigm, have a crack at pecorino.

The variety, native to Italy’s Marche region, is another that delivers acid-driven thrills, usually with citrus blossom, raw almond and grapefruit pith elements in tow.

The 2024 Primo Estate Pecorino ($35) is an emphatic argument for the variety’s suitability to Australian conditions.

Wines that are at
home by the sea

My fondness for martinis dirtier than a teenage mind and compulsion to season food like Scipio seasoned Carthage draws me to white wines that offer hints of salinity in their aromatic profiles.

The power of suggestion often points to them in wines produced in proximity to the sea – albarino in Rias Baixas, assyrtiko in Santorini and fiano grown on Sicily – but it must be something else that points to it in Australia’s first example of Santorini’s signature grape.

The 2024 Jim Barry Assyrtiko ($40) isn’t coastal, it comes from Clare, but it has that same lemon wedge dipped in sea salt character that the best Aegean examples of the variety can ­produce.

Reds that go crunch

Whites and pinks are all well and good, but even at the height of summer there still needs to be a place for reds.

However, they need to be wines with suppleness and grace, not weighed down with the heft of oak and super-ripe fruit. Reds that go “crunch” in the mouth.

The 2024 Ochota Barrels ‘Texture Like Sun’ ($42), a grenache-based blend with enlivening splashes of syrah, pinot noir and gewurztraminer joining the party, fits the bill perfectly with its shimmeringly bright red fruits, its fragrant spice and its ­gracefully willowy structure.

     

Champagne. Do you need to ask why?

There’s no need to waste valuable space here telling you why you should drink Champagne. It’s as pointless as reminding you to breathe.

A Champagne-fuelled summer is always a good one and these are good options to keep the fizz in your ­festivities.

Larmandier-Bernier Latitude NV ($150) is a Grower Champagne of precise power and intricate detail, Louis Roederer Rose Vintage 2016 ($160) is a fine and fragrant Champagne with the palest pink blush like the first signs of sunburn on pale skin, and Krug Grande Cuvee ($475) is a must because no year should end or begin without the occasion being marked with the greatest fizz of them all.

       

Seasonal spirits

While wine does much of the heavy lifting in my summer sessions, the judicious application of long, refreshing cocktails brings much need variety to January’s languid, liquid days. Mezcal Derrumbes San Luis Potosi Salmiana Verde ($129) is a classy, sipping mezcal that can be called into service to produce an exceptional Paloma, while my other favourite summer cocktail, the Dark & Stormy, has found its perfect partner in the Brix “Select Cask” Ginger Beer Finish Rum ($120).

Even holidays need a day off

Moderation is key in all things, and summer drinking is no different.

A day off the booze every now and then is never a bad idea. For those moments, look to the incredible range of sophisticated sodas produced by the brilliant team at T.I.N.A., their Energising ginkgo, sacred lotus, saltbush and pink guava ($24/4pk) is the perfect post-swim refresher, and for those seeking beer’s flavour without its alcoholic impact, the Hiatus Pacific Ale ($15.99/4pk) is proof non-alcoholic beer can be much more enjoyable than dancing with your sister.