There’s no need to debate it: A summer wine can be white, red, or rosé, said Ray Isle in Food & Wine. I recently went in search of the most fridge-friendly wines from each group. The key was “bright acidity and not a lot of alcohol”—12.5 percent is about right. Here are my choices for best values among light-bodied summer wines.
2010 Cusumano Insolia ($12). Made from the Sicilian grape Insolia, this white wine, with hints of peach and citrus, is “aged in stainless-steel tanks to keep its flavors fresh.”
2010 Waterbrook Sangiovese Rosé ($11). It’s unusual for Sangiovese or rosé to flourish in Washington’s Columbia Valley—but this “lightly floral bottling is a nice surprise.”
2009 Martinshof Zweigelt ($12). Wine importer Carlo Huber blends a little bit of pinot noir with native Zweigelt grapes to “soften the edges” of this otherwise “spicy Austrian red.”
