‘Some red styles fit with lighter foods and warmer days,’ says David Williams. Photograph: Paul Almásy/CorbisHere you go – try some refreshing, spring-into-summer reds this week…Tesco Beaujolais, France NV (£4.49) The idea of a thirst-quenching red wine sounds like an oxymoron at first. And it’s true that a glass of Aussie shiraz is not exactly the first thing I’d reach for after I’d been for a run – or even what seems most appealing when the sun is out. But some red styles live up to the description of vin de soif better than others, fitting with lighter foods and warmer days, leaving the palate refreshed and awake. The reds of Beaujolais are the classic example, Tesco’s perfectly good budget own-label offering up the kind of berry-bonbon fruit, fresh acidity and lightness of tannin and alcohol that is best in the garden after half an hour in the fridge.
Broc Cellars Vine Star Zinfandel 2013 (£28.95, Roberson) Unless I was having a barbecue, I wouldn’t normally class Californian zinfandel as a summer red. As you might expect from a grape variety whose most famous exponent, Ravenswood, has the slogan “no wimpy wines”, most zins I’ve tried over the years have tended to go for scale over subtlety, ramping up the fruit and dialling up the alcohol for the archetypal big butch New World wine. And while that style can be fun in its way, Broc Cellars’ example is nothing like it. Part of the increasingly influential new wave in the state that favours elegance over brawn, they’ve gone for a style that has more in common with pinot noir or Beaujolais’s gamay, and it has a delectably racy and succulent raspberry-floral character.
COS Frappato, Vittoria, Sicily 2012 (£18.99, The Smiling Grape Company) Like the Californians, the Sicilians are also capable of producing full-throttle power in a rich and full-bodied style that generally works best in the winter. But the wines made from the local frappato variety have a red-fruited prettiness and softness of touch, plus a squeeze of cherryish acidity that is the last word in refreshment. Vintage Roots has a nicely affordable version in the shape of the delightful strawberry-juicy Feudo di Santa Tresa Frappato 2013 (£9.99), while COS brings extra layers of floral complexity and a delightful silky liveliness to its pure raspberry fruit and Arianna Occhipinti’s Il Frappato 2012 (£27.36, Wine Bear) combines herbs, peppered strawberries and violets in a gorgeously ethereal mix.
