How I shop for summer wine

Shelf-stable sippers, low-ABV cans and porch pounders for all.

Let’s drink wine! Limited tickets remain for Chardonnay & Friends at Bloomsday on Tuesday, 6/23 from 6-8pm. It’s a wine class + family meal dinner designed for Chardonnay haters and enthusiasts alike, or just anyone who likes to have fun with wine. Sign up here.

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Enjoying wine is easy; shopping for wine is hard. Words are confusing, retail signage is all over the place and cute labels exist to grab your attention before anything old school. Pot, meet algorithm.

Lest we forget that the economy is financially torturing us all; anything that vibes cheap and cheerful tends to command attention, even if the wine inside is swill.

Do you know the abbreviation KISS?

It’s not romantic, it’s rationale.

Keep. It. Simple. Stupid.

This “concept” was incepted [by name] in the Navy in the 1960s in some citations, and by American English in 1938 according to others. Calling it a concept is generous; it’s really just great life advice. Lessen pressure on yourself. Take initiative to learn enough to feel good trusting your gut, and then more if you want to. To bring others along on the ride, prioritize simple and streamlined processes, conceptually and visually.

[If using the word stupid offends you, these alternates verbiage choices are the same mood.]

Sometimes what you think is simple won’t be to others. It’s not personal; don’t get offended. Listen, adjust as needed, move along.

Below are simple things that have helped me shop independently for summer wines for as long as i’ve given a hoot about real wine.

Go to a good store. Preferably one with salespeople that you trust.

Not summer exclusive, but always worth repeating. If a wineseller makes you feel subpar in any way, you don’t have to buy anything. Sometimes, money speaks louder than words. Wine shopping should be fun and exciting, especially for personal consumption.. Support places that lead with kindness, choose the same in your wines.

Stress less about specific places, grapes and rules.

Wine is a whole mood, you can treat it as such. If you asked me to find you the Pinot with the dog that you drank six months ago in some wine bar, i’ll look back at you as if you’ve got six heads. But - but! If you share that you tend to like Pinots and other bright reds that don’t leave your mouth dry, the options become limitless.

If you’re somewhere and have something delicious, it’s very much okay write it down or take a picture of the front + back labels. It’s actually very helpful when people do this. Don’t be shy, do whatever helps you.

Shelf stable aperitifs, vermouth and beyond are a summer sipping dream.

You can spritz anything that you put your mind to. Visit the “other wines” or “aromatized” sections at your wine store. Many will be aromatized or macerated winelike beverages - slightly higher in proof, but intended to be served in a smaller portion. Vermouth, amari, chinato, Lillet, aperitivo, etc. are all examples. They sting less to open because they’re shelf stable, meaning you can have the bottle open for a month, often longer.

Take Bonal, a beautiful label that should inspire a future nail set. It’s a spicy, earthy aperitif of gentian, quinine and herbs of the Grande Chartreuse mountains. Cut the earthiness with soft cider. Spritz with seltzer to whet your appetite, then pair with alpine-style cheese and almonds. Sit outside, smell it often, recap the bottle and save for another day. Maybe you’ll pay a bit more than you would for a still wine, but you’ll get more portions and can pace over time.

No glass for outdoor adventures.

Natural winemakers consider the environment. You should too. Also, your shoulders will thank you when you’re traipsing across sand without feeling weighed down.

ABV! ABV! ABV!

It’s hot. You’re more dehydrated than you realize. Let a lower ABV rule decision-making. Enjoy wine-like beverages of beer strength - piquette, coferments, dual fruits, that sort of thing. Young wines from cooler climate regions are also nice – Vinho Verde (Portugal) and Txakolina (the Basque region of Spain) are famed summer heroes.

Turn the bottle around, look for that little number with a % after it. In wine, 11% or under is generally the range when it comes to low ABV – personally, I tweak that up to 11.5% to give wiggle room for texture.

Speaking of ABV…

You know what has a reliable 0% ABV and prevents headaches? Water! Remember to drink some.

Any wine is chillable if you chill it.

No one needs to give you permission to chill wine. You can do anything that you want. I wouldn’t do an oaked red or high-ABV wine personally, but you do you,

If you don’t like a wine when it’s cold, just let it come back up to temp. No harm done, just don’t bake the bottle in direct sunlight for too long.

Darker in color does not mean the rosé is sweet.

Forearm tattoo loading. Color can come from grape skins, length of extraction, the saignée (sohn-yay) method where winemakers bleed off a portion of pink juice early in the red winemaking process, so many different ways. Stop judging on appearance, ask about the wine’s personality instead.

Live, laugh, liter.

More wine by bottle volume, generally fresher styles, screw tops make life easy when you’re outdoors. Waxed poetic here recently.

Screw tops ≠ bad wine.

Crown caps and screw tops infer that it’s a drink now wine, and that the maker has made a financial investment to mitigate the chance of cork taint. It costs a lot of money to install a capper; stop being snobby.

All wine pairs with cheese.

Stop overthinking a picnic. Get what you like.

All wine rules are simply suggestions.

I like cans and bags and screw top liters. I also have a bad shoulder and am usually carrying my child’s crap around. If you want to lay in the sun with something fancy that needs a wine key and a decanter, go for it. I wouldn’t bring Barolo bombs outdoors personally, but again, you do you.