“Who started the lie that sparkling wine is for special occasions only?” asked Andrew Richdale in GQ.com. In the heat of summer, a good sparkler provides cooling relief. These three cost less than $25 and don’t require flutes. Serve them in wineglasses or even Mason jars. Each of them is “a hell of a lot more interesting than another chilled chardonnay.”
2012 Ameztoi Rubentis Txakolina ($21). This bone-dry rosé from Spain’s Basque Country is “made so close to the beach you can taste sea breeze.”
2011 Vigneto Saetti Lambrusco ($16). Italians “guzzle” this summertime staple, a fizzy red that has “the zing of cherries with the funk of truffles.”
2012 Broadbent Vinho Verde ($9). This ultralight Portuguese white “delivers all the zip and quench of a margarita, no mixing required.”
