There are frequent references in wine articles and wine books to “seasonal” wines – wines that are better for summer, winter or spring. So what makes one wine more of a “summer wine” yet another more of a “winter wine”? There is no simple formula for wines being seasonal; instead, it’s a question of what wines feel like and how a wine pairs not just with food, but also with the surrounding temperature or weather. Just as food is seasonal – salads and fruit are the cornerstones of most summer diet – so is wine.
Most people love summer. When it gets warm, we live in shorts and T-shirts and cook and dine out every chance we get. Summer isn’t the time for thick stews, but rather for lighter textures: salads, fruity dishes, seafood, and so forth. It wouldn’t be appropriate to pair such foods with heavy, full-bodied wines; instead, you’ll want to have light and fruity reds and rosés, or light, acidic whites. You’ll want a refreshing wine that brings you up, not a heavy wine that feels like it’s weighing you down. The main characteristics of “summer wines” are those that offer the best pairing with summer gastronomy: crisp; acidic; light; fruity; refreshing; best served chilled, light whites; thirst-quenching dry rosés; fruity, luscious reds; and, of course, the sparkling wines.
In summer, we love grilled food, salads and fruit. Most grilled summer dishes are relatively simple: there’s a main ingredient (usually a protein of some kind), plus the possibility of various seasonings in the form of marinades, rubs and sauces. To choose a wine to pair with something off the grill, consider two things: first, how hearty is the food, and second, what’s the dominant flavour? For lighter foods (white-fleshed fish, vegetables, chicken breasts), pick a lighter wine. For heartier foods (sausages, burgers, steaks), choose a more robust wine.
Both reds and whites can be light-, medium- or full-bodied, depending on factors such as the type of grape grown, and several other factors including wine making techniques. When considering dish flavour, you don’t want your wine to overpower your food, but you also don’t want the flavours of your food to be too intense for the wine. Often, this is the sauce or seasonings used in the dish rather than the meat. Let’s say you’re making chicken (light, mild-flavoured) with a big, spicy barbeque sauce. The sauce would be more important in choosing a wine than the chicken, because the sauce is the dominant flavour. For steaks and lamb – even if they’re marinated beforehand – the dominant flavour will almost always be the meat itself, but with foods like shrimps with a hot garlic dressing, the sauce or seasoning is by far the main flavour of the dish. The dominant flavour is a key thing to consider when selecting a wine.
Another important consideration in what makes a wine a summer wine or a winter one is the temperature at which it is best served. If a wine is best served slightly warm, then it’s a better wine to drink during the cold winter months when you probably don’t want a cold drink. If a wine is best served colder, then it’s a better drink during the hot summer months when a colder wine is more welcome and more refreshing. Temperature is a crucial factor in wine appreciation, yet it is a factor that is insufficiently appreciated by many consumers.
Summer temperatures change the rules for proper serving temperature for wines, both white and red, and getting the temperature right is an easy way to improve any wine under summer conditions. For most of the year, whites really aren’t at their best when pulled directly from a refrigerator or an ice bucket. Extreme cold blunts their aromas, sharpens their acidity and shortens their aftertaste. However, if you’re going to have a glass of wine on a hot evening, it is worth remembering that the ambient temperature will quickly warm the beverage in your glass. Reds that are too warm will show too much alcoholic “heat” in their aromas and aftertaste, and will seem soupy and unfocused, with insufficient acidity and almost no refreshment value.
Acids are very important structural components of wine. Acids give wines their characteristic crisp, slightly tart taste. Alcohol, sugars, minerals and other components moderate the sourness of acids and give wines balance. If a wine is too low in acid, it tastes flat and dull. If a wine is too high in acid, it tastes tart and sour. All refreshing drinks enjoyed by humans contain acidity, which is a vital component that works in relation to sweet and bitter elements to produce pleasing taste sensations.
Among grapes they are tartaric, malic and citric acids. As temperatures rise, we naturally desire drinks with more acidity, as evidenced by the somewhat seasonal popularity of lemon-based drinks, which are appealing specifically because of their high content of citric acid. It is also worth noting that almost all sparkling wines are quite high in acidity, since this is required to carry the flavours through the effervescence. Acidity is more evident in solutions that are colder, so chilling wines thoroughly is not only a good idea in its own right as a way to deal with hot conditions, but also crucial as a way to accentuate the specific element in wine that refreshes us.
What we drink can have a huge impact on how well the food and the evening as a whole is received. Below are some tips on the wines to buy to help you with your summer entertaining:
· For steak lovers, try a great Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz which will bring out the flavours of the meat.
· For poultry or pork, a Merlot will do you well.
· When it comes to barbeques, the wine to buy is Monolithos “Mavro”. Or if you want a great all-rounder, you can’t go wrong with an Agios Stephanos red, the perfect fit for most things; steak, pork, poultry and burgers.
· Santa Monica white and Xynisteri are great wines to buy for vegetarians and fish lovers, being the perfect partner for grilled vegetables and seafood.
· And for red meat lovers who fancy a touch of white with their meal, try Agios Stephanos White.
So once you have identified which wine to buy, the question of price is another issue to consider. “If I spend twice as much, will the wine I buy be twice as good?” is a frequently asked question. Generally if you aim to spend under €10 you will find that quality does increase with price – so a €6 bottle of wine may well be twice as good as a €3 bottle and a €8 bottle twice as good as a €4 one. But over and above this level the price-to-taste ratio becomes more subjective.
Another difficulty when buying wine is the age and/or vintage year. How does the year impact the taste of the wine you buy? As a guide, most white wines (particularly inexpensive bottles) are best drunk as young as possible – certainly within a year or two of the vintage. Their appeal is in their freshness and fruitiness.
For reds, don’t be fooled into following the myth that red wines should be kept for years. Most red wines nowadays are perfect for drinking quite soon after the vintage. It is the older generation of red wines, the ones which contain more tannin – the stuff that acts as the wine’s natural preservative – which you might want to leave to linger for a while. Big traditional reds can have masses of tannin and do need to be stored for many years before they are soft enough to drink. Consequently, a light- or medium- or bodied wine with relatively low tannins is suitable for most summer dishes and could be one to four years old.
If you are having a summer party, start off right by having something for everyone. Consider serving a sparkling wine at the beginning of the meal instead of the end, either alone, or along with a red wine choice. Spread the food out to encourage mingling instead of crowding. Serving summer wine cocktails, rosé wines would also be a refreshing way to keep your guests cool on a hot summer day. You can also start your party by offering a welcoming cocktail drink based on wine. Summertime is also the season for a kir (KEER), the traditional French wine cocktail of cold white wine and crème de cassis. The recipe is simple; add about one tablespoon of crème de cassis (a blackcurrant-flavoured liqueur) per glass. The traditional way to do this is to pour the cassis over an inverted spoon so that it streams into the cold wine like a fountain.
In summer, dining out in Cyprus can be a real culinary adventure. Moussaka, souvlakia and kleftiko will be familiar meals to anyone who has visited or spent his or her summer holidays in Greece or Cyprus, but to the newcomer, the best introduction to Cypriot cooking must be the “meze”. Also called mezethes, this is a large selection of dishes with small helpings of varied foods, brought to the table as a progression of tastes and textures. The collective dishes of this variety are normally served to fulfil two purposes: enhancing the flavour of drinks, and to kick-start a social gathering.
As a main meal, mezethes usually comprise between 20 to 30 plates of food, from delicious dips and vegetables to a variety of fish and meats, so even the fussiest of eaters cannot fail to find something to their liking. Usually mezethes are shared by everyone sitting across the table. These dishes not only deliver a variety of tastes, but also generate the feeling of a convivial and happy atmosphere. In fact, the word “meze” describes a form of socializing as much as a group of dishes.
Mezethes are distinguished in two kinds – fish or meat dishes. It is also common in Cyprus to classify fish- or meat-specific taverns. A fish tavern offers dishes like grilled squid, calamari, octopus, cuttlefish, red mullet (parpouni), sea bass (lavraki), and gilt-head bream (tsipoura), while the meat mezes includes traditional souvla (lamb chops, pork, and chicken), souvlakia (shish kebab), sheftalia, gyros, meat balls, grilled halloumi, fried sausages, sliced garlic bread, spicy meat balls, etc. Cypriot mezethes generally have robust or spicy flavours to stand up to strong drinks.
Salads and vegetables are offered at every tavern irrespective of specialization. In the summer, the usual salad is of celery leaves and stalks, parsley, coriander leaves, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumber, olives, capers, courgettes, green peppers, okra, green beans, artichokes, carrots, lettuce, parsley and rocket. More often, salads are prepared chopped, sliced, and dressed with lemon and olive oil and feta cheese.
Wine may be the most versatile food partner there is, except perhaps for water. But when it comes to a tavern visit, who on earth wants to have mezethes with water? In Cyprus, like in most parts of Europe, local food is best served with local wine.
“If it grows together, it goes together.”
This basically means your local wine would most likely go extremely well with local dishes or locally produced meat and vegetables from the farms of local produce. Meat mezethes are a good match for the “black” unique-to-Cyprus “Mavro” red wines, or the spicier, higher acidity varieties like Maratheftiko and Ofthalmo. Cabernet Sauvignon is wonderful with savoury rich starters like sausages or stuffed mushrooms. The Xynisteri is the main wine grape, which makes a fresh, light-tasting and pleasing white wine and matches well with the fish mezethes.
Some wine tips for summer:
1. The ideal serving temperature differs depending on the wine style and “weight” of the wine. In general, heavier wines are best served at higher temperatures than lighter wines.
2. Serving white wine too cold e.g. 5ºC, will mask its flavours, but serve it too warm and it will taste overly alcoholic and heavy.
3. Serving a red wine too cold will result in a wine that tastes thin and harsh. Serve it too warm and it will taste overly alcoholic or vinegary.
4. “Room temperature” can vary greatly, based on the time of year and air conditioning or heating. Bear this in mind when it comes to red wine.
5. As a general guide, chill lighter- and medium-bodied whites for two hours before serving to achieve the ideal temperature.
6. On hot days, put your red wines in the fridge for an hour or so before serving.
7. Water cools faster than air. For urgent chilling use a bucket, ice, cold water, and some salt.
8. Although there’s a huge diversity in wine glasses, you can use the same glass of white, red, and sparkling wines for each wine form.
9. For serious wine drinking, red wine glasses should be filled to one third capacity, with white and sparkling wines to three quarters of a glass.
10. When it’s hot out and the wine is cold, just do small pours since wine in the bottle keeps colder.
11. In summer, think pink. Cast aside any lingering prejudices and catch the hot wine of summer, a dry rosé. Rosés are so food-friendly and offer something with more substance than a white.
Wine News and Information
* Italy surpassed France in total wine production last year, according to data from the European Commission. Italian producers bottled 4.96 billion litres to France’s 4.62 billion litres; the former held steady while the latter dropped 1%. The two countries have long sparred over the top slot, with the winner’s mantle switching back and forth from year to year. Most of the variability can be attributed to changes in annual growing conditions; wine grapes are notoriously susceptible to shifts in weather. Both Italy and France consistently produce far more than the third-biggest producer, Spain, who in turn produces far more than the fourth-biggest, the US.
* Sales of expensive wine are soaring, according to Majestic Wine, the UK’s largest wine retailer, as increasingly savvy consumers opt to stay home with a fine wine rather than go out for an overpriced vin ordinaire. There has been an explosion in interest in food and wine; people are really into food now, and wine is part of that lifestyle. The wine warehouse chain said wines priced at £20 a bottle or more now account for 6% of sales at the retailer – up almost a quarter on the previous year. The average bottle bought at Majestic now costs £6.94, up from £6.56 last year. Majestic is aiming squarely at students of the grape. It now offers instructive wine courses: 12,000 customers attended 1,500 courses run in 2010/11. It will shortly launch Wine Walks – not hiking through vineyards, but a guided tour around a store to sample wines from all the different regions. The success of Majestic over the last few years has been in stark contrast to the difficulties faced by other high-street off-licence chains. Greg Feehely, an analyst at Altium Securities said: “Majestic has a car park. On top of that they have great customer service and they train their staff properly. That, coupled with cheaper rents than high-street retailers, has driven Majestic’s huge expansion while others have faltered.”
Monolithos Monthly News
During the growing season, we saw a rainy spring with a relatively cool June which makes the year a challenging one. The overall result so far is exceptional over vigorous vines. Consequently, during the early days of June, it became necessary to cut back the tips of shoots to prevent further growth and manage the vigour whilst making control of pests more effective.
The Limassol District Office on 16 June approved a building permit for Monolithos Winery to construct a winery in Pachna. The Pericleous family is planning to start construction this autumn on the first phase of a small winery project among its vines just outside the village of Pachna. In the first phase, a two-storey, 600-square-metre fermentation building and barrel storage area, bottling room, wine storage and electro-mechanical room will be constructed. In its final construction phase, Monolithos Winery will be capable of producing 10,000 cases a year. The project also will include environmentally sustainable features such as solar energy, geothermal cooling and heating, and irrigation from treated process wastewater.
Currently, all wines are available for tasting and purchasing. If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995.
We thank you for your continued support and we welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. And remember:
Good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Othello, II. iii. (315)
