Summer Wines

As warmer weather approaches, people are looking to lighten up their palates with less red wine and heavy flavours, and start looking at lighter more refreshing options. Therefore, pink, white and orange options start to become more favourable again.

Rosé always has its own appeal and I definitely consider this a wine for drinking, so having simple and good options that people can enjoy without it becoming complicated, as well as having more serious options for those who want to up the ante, is imperative.

White wines cover everything from the drinking category to the thinking category, depending on what you are looking for. Option to explore different parts of the world like the mineral rich wines of Chablis are always available and of great personal interest to me. These wines can be everything from zippy, delicious and consumed right away to far more powerful and complex expressions that need time to open and should be paired accordingly with the right food. Dry German Riesling’s have absolute versatility with raw seafood and I honestly feel as though they are a pinnacle component to any wine list that compliments a menu, such as ours, that is raw seafood heavy.

Chef Ollie has been quite creative and diverse with his seasonal menu including everything from Port Phillip Bay snapper carpaccio with ponzu sauce, to flaxseed gnocchi with carrot and anise, grilled fresh-caught shellfish, which changes constantly, to smoked ham hock whey risotto. This diverse range of flavours has allowed me to add more skin contact wines to the list and broaden the option to have a more culinary driven food and wine pairing. These are wines of texture and palate weight, and have the ability to take on lots of different flavours – definitely wines for thinking.

Here are a couple of personal favourites that I have recently listed.

Manon ‘Peaches’ Field Blend 2017 – A small and relatively new producer out of the Adelaide Hills doing some of the most considered and deliciously interesting wines going around, extremely versatile with food but can be enjoyed on their lonesome.

Corva Gialla Bianco 2016 – A white wine that hails from Lazio, Italy, and has power and a nice little lick of tannin with a fresh mineral core. This is ‘orange’ wine and definitely designed to be paired with foods (think smoked ham hock risotto). Wines like these are the point of difference for us over the warmer months as we strive towards a harmonious food and wine culture.

For light Red summer drinking, I like the following wines from Beaujolais.

Damien Coquelet Côte du Py’ Morgon Gamay 2014 – Reasonably light wild red fruit but with great tannin structure. A more savoury wine that does well with our lamb dish due to its slightly gamey notes. A wine that is drinking well now and is never too overpowering.