3 Refreshing Summer Wines for Under $20.00

When the days turn warm and the afternoons are long and leisurely, my interest turns to good food and refreshing white wines. Mary and I have come to depend on good, inexpensive wines that make lunch or dinner a more sensuous and soothingly lingering experience. Nothing can beat a lively, cool, crisp white wine to make any meal memorable and the company more intimate. There are many excellent wines that offer such qualities but often we turn to one of the three wines listed here.

Experience has taught us that dependability is an important element in truly enjoying a long, summer meal with friends and family. These three wines offer refreshing taste, well matched acidity and minerality, and a knack for making summer foods pop with wide-eyed fun. They are also priced below $20.00.

Our Summer 2016 List

Our go to wine these days is the German Peter Lauer Barrel X Riesling. Peter Lauer has something of a cult status and this entry level offering is worth seeking out. Barrel X is a dry Riesling with nice complexity and nuanced tones. It has great minerality, citrus and green apple notes and a sparkling liveliness from nose to finish. I think you will fully enjoy this superb offering. Pairs great with Asian food, barbecue, blue cheese and fish. 

Barrel X normally goes for about $18.00.

Take a peek at Peter Lauer Barrel X

Next on our list is Kim Crawford's Sauvignon Blanc. This is an exciting wine from New Zealand. It's a great place to start if you are looking for some pop in your wine drinking experience. Unlike many Sauvignon Blancs from New Zealand it has more tropical fruit, melon and pear elements making it very pleasing and approachable. It's juicy, mouth-watering acidity on top of a tangy fruitiness makes for a real zing that can help any meal reach full potential. Pair it especially with grilled fish, mussels, and shrimp.

You can pick a bottle up for about $16.00. 

Here's a nice offering at Wine.com

To finish off things off, we have a Casal Garcia Vinho Verde from Portugal. This is a simple wine that offers fresh, fruity aromas that fit perfectly into a relaxed summer atmosphere. It suggests a hint of effervescence that adds a perky and lively feel to the core of acidity. Casal is crispy dry with just enough fruitiness to make you go back for more time and again. It's a focused wine that stays away from complications. It matches well with sushi, cheese dishes, seafood and salads. 

You can probably find this for under $10.00.

Check out Casal Garcia Vinho Verde 


I hope you savor these wines as much as Mary and I have over the years. With warm weather upon us, you can enjoy the long, hot days with respectable companions.  

Let me know you favorite summer wines. 

Portuguese Red Wines - Cardeal and Monte Da RavasQuiera

Portuguese table wines are gaining in popularity. In my younger days I drank my share of Mateus. I really liked the bottles. Mateus is a sweetish, carbonated wine that is still sold ubiquitously around the world. But Portugal has come a long way and has moved beyond not only Mateus but the also the traditional Port and Madeira wines for which it has been known for many years. Good Portuguese wines are grown in both the north and south. The northern regions consist of Douro, Dao and Barraida. In the south there are Estremedura and Ribatejo, which includes Peter Brights very interesting efforts. Of course, there is Madeira known for its port wine.

Today I want to talk about two Portuguese wines from the north. The first is Cardeal Reserva 2007. This wine is produced from the Touriga-Nacional grape. Although this grape is used largely for port wines of the Douro, it is also being used for good quality table wines. The Cardeal was very pleasant to drink. The color was not a fully deep red but quite attractive. The legs were copius with a 13.5% alcohol content. The nose was lively and full of berries and I think plum. I immediately had the feel of an earthy, rustic element. I had the sense of really smashing those grapes with my feet. It was down home. The wine lingered on the tongue but not overly long. There was the hint of oak although I'm not sure how it is produced. The wine overall seemed to lack a certain integration. It also seemed a tad too simple. It is a very enjoyable red but not all one would want in a great wine.

The second wine is Monte Da RavasQuiera 2007 from Alentejo-Catavino. From the estate of the same name this wine is a very nice blend: 40% Trincadeira, 20% Touriga-Nacional, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Tempranillo, 10% Touriga Franca and 5% Alicante Bouchet. The color was deep and red with a nose of cherry, blackberry and spice. It had great balance, fullness and some complexity. The tannins were smooth. The finish was long and enjoyable. Although not as complex as it might be the smoothness and the balance were very enjoyable. There was a regal, upper class feel. I felt like a member of the royal palace. Not bad at all. I found that with some time the wine grew more enjoyable. In fact, the second day was superior to the first. It takes quite a bit of time for this wine to find itself and open up to higher potential.

Both of these wines are very enjoyable, if not the most complex. They are worth the time and effort to purchase and are reasonably priced.