A Summery White for Chilling and Grilling

We had a heat wave in LA recently, with temperatures well into the 90s. It was a not-so-gentle reminder of the high temperatures to come. Do you have your summer whites on hand for the first time the mercury climbs into the stratosphere?

If not, consider picking up the 2007 Big House Wine Company Big House White. (suggested retail $9.99; available for $7-$12 throughout the country) It's a blend of Muscat Canelli, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Malvasia Bianca, Vermentino, and Muscat de Gaillo. And while some wines blended from this many grapes can be a bit mushy in the taste department and leave you wondering why they bothered to mix them all together, this blend works to produce a white wine that is perfect for chilling down and sipping on the patio while you grill up some fish or chicken. This may be the quintessential summer sipper with its aromas of peach, apricot, and blood orange lurking under a Stelvin closure. Flavors of blood orange and peach predominate, all wrapped up in a sweet and honeyed aftertaste. Even so, there's enough acidity to keep the wine lively and interesting. Excellent QPR given the wine's price and its well-balanced flavors.

This wine would be just as at home with spicy Asian food as it would be with grilled food, and it's a perfect partner for salads, too. We had ours with the cover recipe from a recent issue of Bon Appetit: a salad of grilled chicken, radish, cucumber, and tarragon pesto. I often pair tarragon with Sauvignon Blanc, but if you don't get it just right the tastes can sometimes be jarring. This wine was great with the strong flavors of the radish and tarragon, and had the right blend of softness and acidity to pair with the cucumbers and greens.

Full Disclosure: I received this wine as a sample.

The White Side of Tuscany: Vermentino

There's more to Tuscany than red wine.

In recent years, the region has been producing more whites to keep up with rising demand. While wines made with grapes such as Vermentino and Vernaccia may never eclipse Sangiovese in the popular imagination, that can be a boon for people looking for good value Italian wines.

The 2007 Rocca de Montemassi Calasole, for example, is a very good QPR example of the Vermentino grape and what it can do in Tuscany. I received my bottle as a sample, but it seems to be going for between $9 and $12 in the market. Tablas Creek Vineyards in Paso Robles introduced the grape into the US in 1993, and has been prized for its acidity and citrusy crispness.

In the Rocca de Montemassi bottling, the grape's zesty profile was clear. There was a lot of acidity in this wine, but there was also abundant fruit which helped to keep the wine in good balance. Aromas of pear, apple, and lemon pith were fresh and lively and they translated into bright, fruit flavors as well. If you've shied away from inexpensive Italian whites in the past because you found them harsh or bitter, you don't have to worry about feeling that way with this bottle.

The label suggested that shellfish was the perfect partner for this wine, and we chose to make pasta with crab and shrimp tossed in a golden saffron and cream sauce. The acidity and freshness of the wine worked well with this dish, and provided an excellent counterpoint for the richness of the cream sauce.

I think what most impressed about this wine was that it wasn't trying to be something else. It wasn't trying to be oaky Chardonnay, or big and bold. Instead, it was happy to be a tasty, well-made, and well-priced wine that is excellent with food. With all that going for it, who needs anything more?

Seashells by the Seashore

Summer by the sea can make even the most die-hard red meat eater turn to creatures that swim and crawl on the ocean floor when it comes time to have dinner. I'm no exception to the rule. Just smelling the salt air makes me want shrimp, scallops, lobster (not that there's much of that on the Sonoma coast), and crab.

If you've got a seafood dinner in your future, you may want to look for a bottle of the very good QPR 2005 Teruzzi & Puthod Terre di Tufi ($16.99, domaine547). This wine contains a subtle and intriguing blend of chardonnay, malvasia, vernaccia, and vermentino which produces a soft, medium-boded white just perfect for the delicate flavors of shellfish. While it does see a short time in barriques (4-5 months), there is no pronounced oakiness to get between you and your food. I liked the aromas of apple and hay that introduced me to the wine, and then the lean mineral and lemon-inflected flavors that followed. Seafood can be rich, but heavy wines completely overwhelm them. This wine is round without being heavy, fresh without being tart, and the blend of grapes works very well together. At 13% alc/vol, it is also a wine that can be enjoyed down to the last drops in the glass.

We had this wine with an absolutely fantastic dish of seared scallops and lemon orzo. The buttery scallops fit perfectly with the round, fresh flavor profile of the wine. The orzo--cooked in broth and lemon juice to infuse the pasta with flavor while making a clinging sauce--helped to pick out and emphasize the lemon notes in the wine.

Teruzzi & Puthod is located in the beautiful Tuscan hilltop town of San Gimignano, and the grapes from this wine came from area vineyards. We may be more familiar with Tuscan reds in this country, but this wine will definitely make me seek out the region's white wines as well.