shit, that is fressshhhh — the perfect sips for when it's sticky out.
These warmer climes lead to an abundance of crunchy veggies like iceberg lettuce wedges and cucumber in your gin & tonic. Ain’t it a great to be alive?
Now, for some us the sun has been the stuff of legends lately and our holiday plans of long, hot, sunny days at camping spots have been quietly compromised but it has been humid. Those of you lucky enough to find the blue skies, just know the rest of us are resentful and unlikely to heart emoji your instagram stories right now. We’re dark like thunder clouds and sweaty from sitting still. We need a restorative refreshment.
Lamenting the lack of sunshine, we shouldn’t let the grey malaise interfere with our seasonal social situ. The general mood at this time of year is one of the chill and lordy don’t we deserve it. So, let’s forget the weather and make a toast to good beverage so you can find the chi in your chill. Here’s some super fresh recommendations:
Stylistically sort of new to Aotearoa, chilled red wine as an option is quite well known abroad. There’s good reason. The cool temperature adds texture and with the dry, savoury, dark fruit characteristics found in some red wines, like plums and cherry, they make for the perfect glass of good juice when it’s a cracking hot day. If you’re a Rosé fan (and we know you are) then you’re already drinking a chilled red wine, sort of, in a way, kinda.
Not all reds handle the fridge well. Generally speaking, those that are younger or lighter in style tend to respond best. Fruit flavours will be enhanced and the tannins will take a back seat. You’re left with a refreshing, fruity, palate cleansing and cooling glass of something bloody delicious.
I recently popped a red from the Rhône Valley in the Frigidaire for an hour or so and it was absolutely superb. It was a grenache, syrah blend so a lighter style which made it ripe for the ice box. Five stars. Highly recommend.
Our pals from By The Bottle are right on cue and here’s a chilled red 3 pack that they prepared earlier. Containing a cool blend from Hawkes Bay winery — Kenzie Duet Pinot Syrah 2022, a doozy from Portugal — Niepoort Drink Me Nat Cool Vermelho 1L and even the Italians get a look in with the Fatalone Teres Primitivo 2019, this box is a ray of sunshine on its own.
image by Yuki Sato
There’s nothing worse than a hangover served with a side of sun stroke. So don’t get too carried away on the booze. First off, one wine, one water. (hello antipodes 👋) It’s the only rule we’d carve in stone. (ok, we’d also carve ‘drink less, drink better’ but that’s another story).
Another option to keep the booze in check is opt for the lower alcohol stunners that are sitting on the wine shelf waiting patiently for you.
The Alsace region of France and Germany are deeply established as producers of low alcohol Riesling. Boy, this stuff is the biz. For some reason Riesling is a hard sell for a lot of you guys but please believe me when I say it’s some of the best gear you’ll get to wet the whistle.
Not only does this stuff pair well with food, i.e.) it transcends any asian fusion joint on the high street but it’s also superbly refreshing. Dry or sweet, with the right acidity balance and a good crisp chill, this wine delivers. Typical flavour profile characteristics for Riesling are lemon and lime, peaches and white flowers like frangipani. I mean does that not sound like a swing in the hammock? It’s summer in a glass for Pete’s sake.
If you really can’t handle that jandal, there are other grape varieties and wines crafted with lower alcohol simply because the winemaking team decided to pick the fruit a little earlier. Local Hawkes Bay producer, Halcyon Days make an incredibly refreshing, juicy number called Heliacal Rise and it’s only 10% alc. The wine is a blend of Pinot Noir Rosé and skin fermented Chardonnay so mighty fine but without the mighty punch.
Then there’s Piquette. Tell you what, this stuff had me at…WTF is it? because I’d never heard of it and anything new and exciting pleases me endlessly. Piquette isn’t actually all that new. I was anointed by Ben Leen of Alpine Wine and fell for it — big time. When I mentioned it to my French pal, Leslie Hottiaux at Apéro, she leaned towards me and smiled, ‘Morv, we’ve been making that stuff forever. It’s leftovers that the farmers give to the workers for refreshments since the beginning of time.”
Piquette is made by using the leftover grape skins (aka pomace or marc) that is discarded after a ‘proper’ wine is made. Before those grape skins are turned out to make compost, they are popped into a vat and water is added and sometimes additional fresh herbs. A little time to rest allows further extraction of whatever juice and tannins may be left in the grapes and because there is also a little bit of natural sugar left in those skins, a very slight fermentation takes place. The outcome is something you can’t really call wine but tastes like a wonderfully light, fresh version of it, that contains very low alcohol and a very understated but most pleasing effervescent spritz on the lips. Ooo la la. C’est magnifique, non?!
To get your sticky summer mittens on this stuff it pays keep your Piquette peepers open as it’s generally small batch produced here in the shaky isles. I know Ben is about to release his Alpine Wine one which is in an easily recycable, lower carbon-emitting can called Double Dip. (4% alc).
There was a collab between Citizen Collective with Lost and Found which produced one in glass bottle called Red Piquette (5% alc) which may be sold out but email those buggers and demand they make more and Known Unknown make one in glass bottle simply called Piquette which looks like it might still be available.
Another cool contender and one that includes everyone at the bbq, is NON. It’s relatively new to the market place and it’s not trying to be a wine that doesn’t have alcohol. It’s trying to be a non-alcohol beverage that fills the gap where wine would go when you wish to abstain.
Made in Australia by ex-Noma chef, William Wade, NON flavours are designed to make this non-alc option really work with food and deliver the same complexities you’d want from your vino.
Flavours are identified by a numerical system and come in a glass wine bottle that is dressed with a slick label that says ‘classy as you like’ without harking to the slightly beige tradition of the wine label.
An example of the line up is NON No.1, which is made with whole raspberries, Chamomile, Murray River salt, organic cane sugar, verjus and filtered water. Carbonated lightly, similar to that of a Pet Nat, this beauty is dry with lengthy fruit tannins. Find me some sunlight!
Well folks, here’s to sunshine dreaming and chilled wine scheming. It’s 4.58pm as I sign off. I’m going to pop an empty wine glass in the fridge and then walk the dog. When I get back that glass will be just the perfect amount of cool to chill a little pinot noir from the Dice by Dicey box that’s recently become lodged in my pantry as a permanent fixture. Shit, that is fresssssshhhhh.
we’re super grateful to our pals at antipodes water company. they supply us with the good water for our chats. antipodes is an artesian water that contains no chemicals, and when you’re pouring an organic wine that is gold. the mineral content also keeps the palate fresh so you can taste the wine the way the winemaker and nature intended you to. thanks antipodes, you’re the bomb. antipodes.co.nz
