Wine o’Clock: Summer’s coolest reds, whites, rosés and bubbles

Velvet’s wine columnist Giles Luckett has been in the business for more than 30 years and worked everywhere from Harrods to Laithwaites. This month, he’s recommending “sensational summer sippers”

Hello. As I type the sun is shining, the sky is a glorious shade of blue and the ducks on the village pond seem far happier than in the recent monsoon. So in the spirit of making hay while the sun shines, here are some sensational summer sippers for you.

My first recommendation is Kendermanns Special Edition Riesling (Waitrose £9.99). My wine trade spies – OK, their website – tells me that since its launch in 2009, this has become one of their bestsellers. It’s easy to see why: this is a fantastic wine. From its apple, pear and blossom nose to its complex melon, peach and grapefruit palate it oozes class. Dry and with a lovely apricot bite to the finish, this is a perfect partner for summer foods.

Next up a new wine from an old friend. Mouton Cadet Rouge was one of my first wine loves, but I tasted the Mouton Cadet Rosé (Slurp £12.95) for the first time last week. This is a very jolly wine, something I can’t say of a lot of Bordeaux rosés which can be a little severe. Pale, with a complex bouquet of red berries, grapefruit and peaches, the palate is at once vibrant and rich. Strawberries and raspberries lead the charge, but there’s an apricot, dried pear and bitter chocolate tone too. This is just the thing for sipping on a sunny afternoon.

Summer is the season for fizz for many people. Personally, I think fizz is a wine for all seasons, days and times of day, but I digress. I had a fresh encounter with the Azabache Metodo Tradicional Rioja (£21.95 Findlays) and it was splendid. Made from white Tempranillo Blanco (white Tempranillo, who knew? Well the winemaker for one. . .) this is a golden, weighty wine that boasts juicy notes of pears, mealy red apples, nectarines, lemons and honeydew melon. With some gentle spices to the finish, this is a great wine to partner with poultry or creamy cheeses.

One of the best whites I’ve had this year is the Errazuriz Aconcagua Costa Chardonnay (Noble Green £17.50). This Chilean cracker has it all: fruit, power, complexity and freshness. I’ve had several vintages, but the 2021 is something special. The gold robe offers up peaches, honey, citrus and vanilla. Mouth-filling and rich, it's loaded with green and yellow fruits that have a sweetly toned flavour. Balancing this is a vibrant lemon and lime acidity, crushed nuts and lemon zest.

Looking for a lip-staining, smile-inducing, crowd-pleasing red for under a tenner? Look no further than the Nero Oro Appassimento 2022 (Majestic £8.99). This cracking Sicilian is plump, soft as a sigh, and offers bags of bold black fruits. Cherries, damsons and blueberries are offset by toasted almonds, chocolate and sour cherry notes. I’ve had this on its own, with cheesy pasta and with barbecued meats and it’s always worked brilliantly. An ideal summer red.

A good Beaujolais makes for a great summer wine. Fruity enough to sip on its own, it's powerful and structured enough to partner savoury flans, barbecued meats and pink fish, or peppery green salads. This summer I’ll be serving the Château de la Terriere Brouilly 2021 (Noble Grape £17.99). Deeply coloured and with a nose of raspberries, cherries and black pepper, it has masses of black cherry, strawberry and blueberry fruit, backed by sour cherries, black pepper and a distinctively dry granite minerality.

I’ll finish with a celebratory flourish with the Gosset Petite Douceur Rosé Extra Dry Champagne (Waitrose £59.99). Now you may think that having the words ‘Extra Dry’ in the name means that this is well, extra dry. It actually means it’s less dry than the most commonly seen term, ‘Brut’. So much for label logic, eh? By no stretch of the imagination could you call this wine sweet, but it does have a sweetness to the fruit and the finish. Typically refined and precise, its gorgeous salmon hue is populated by tiny amber bubbles that lift notes of white berries, lemon and honey. Flavours of strawberries, loganberries, blood oranges and creamy yeast are given a light coating of honey and lemon to give a profound drinking experience.

Well, it’s Sunday, the sun’s out and that bottle of Kendermanns won’t drink itself. Next time out I’ll be on the hunt for red (wine) October. Cheers!