Italian wines to make you happy for summer

After strolling down Venice’s cobbled streets, visiting museums and doing the tourist thing from sunrise to sunset, the thought of wine and food enters your mind, as you walk, step by step.

The tradition in Venice, at 5 p.m. or a little afterwards, is to disappear into a little café and order the “official” cocktail of Venice, the Venice Spritz.

The traditional Venice Spritz is composed of white wine, fizzy water and either bitter Campari (dry), iridescent orange-red Aperol (sweeter) or Select (somewhere in-between).

Sometimes Prosecco is used instead of wine and fizzy water. This version enhances the flavor and is a big plus.

According to the bartenders in northern Italy, a Venice Spritz made with Aperol is considered feminine and one made with Campari is considered masculine. Using Select or Cynar is somewhere in-between.

Recently, I was served a bottled version of the Venice Spritz at an event at the Italian consulate residence in New York. In this case, the “Italian Cocktail” was bottled, ready to pour and justly named the “Venicespritz.”

Venicespritz is made with Glera, the Prosecco grape and is only six-and-a-half percent alcohol. The color is similar to that of Aperol, iridescent orange-red. The flavor is reminiscent of the Venice Spritz I had in Venice.

As summer approaches, the Venicespritz will be my go-to drink. Move over, Moscato (last year’s rage) and Prosecco (the rage in 2011), the Venicespritz is now in town.

The bottle of Venicespritz is shaped like a Prosecco bottle and has a screw-top, a feature that should help keep the fizz in the bottle until it is poured. I am guessing that the Venicespritz is priced similar to Prosecco ($9-$12). It is now my new, personal aperitif favorite.

Another amazing sparkling wine on the scene is Casa V’s Pinot Grigio Rose ($13). Who would expect a sparkling bottle of Pinot Grigio Rose would taste so good?

The wine is very aromatic and somewhat fizzy. The salmon color and 12 percent alcohol suggest a light, easy-drinking wine, one that is a perfect pairing for seafood, goat cheese and summer salads.

I found the Casa V Pinot Grigio Rose to be full of flavor, well-balanced and a much bigger wine than the bottle would suggest. Hints of cherry, nectarine and strawberry engulfed my palate and help create the desire for the next sip.

The wine was lively with a fresh, long-lingering crispness on the palate. I found this rare Pinot Grigio Rose to be brilliantly versatile and a definite wine that could be served with both seafood and light meats.

If white wine is your favorite summer beverage, there is an amazing white wine from Lugana, near Lake Garda in the Veneto region.

The wine, Hamsa Lugana DOC, is made from a clone of the Trebbiano grape. The growing conditions were perfect in 2011 for the Trebbiano grape near Lake Garda, thus producing one of the most likeable wines in the $15 bracket I have ever sampled.

Personality without bounds defines this well-balanced, ginger-tangerine, quiet monster that roars with flavor. Add crispness and exceptional mouth feel to the palate, and this unusual wine deserves a chance to entertain you as it did for me.

Red wines that do well in summer include wines made with the classic Sangiovese grape. Think Chianti.

I found a very special Sangiovese while visiting Toddi, a historical town in Umbria. The producer, Franco Todini, ages this 2007 Sangiovesi Colli Martani for 12 months in French oak that is toasted medium. The oak brings out the nuances in this wine that aromatically speaking are black cherry, tobacco, vanilla and menthol.

Ironically, the palate picks up the same sensations in your mouth. Add mild tannins and an evenly-balanced roundness to the equation. At 14 percent alcohol and in the $24 range, this elegant wine is a must-buy.

Posted by Phillip Kampe on June 20, 2013. Filed under Columns,Food,Opinion,Wine and Beyond. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry