Grape Guides, Serving Tips, and Pairings — Here’s the Only Summer Wine Guide You Need

It’s never a bad time to brush up on your wine knowledge, especially during the months when longer days and warm weather create endless reasons for gathering with friends, family, or simply a good excuse to fire up the grill and pop open a nice bottle outdoors.

If you’re looking for a primer on the best wines to drink this season or want to expand your knowledge beyond “red wine with steak,” there’s no better place to start. From best varieties to look for in summer, understanding the differences between popular grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, or helpful tips like how long that open bottle will last, we’ve got you covered.

How to pair wine with summer grilling

Pairing wine with summer fare can be difficult, particularly when the grill is involved. The tricky thing is that the wines we’re told pair best with traditional grilled foods — meats, other proteins, and veggies with a bit of char on them — tend to be heavier reds that aren’t always the most refreshing option for warm weather.

But you shouldn’t feel tied to the biggest, boldest, most tannic red wines you can find for every summer meal. Take a look at these four classic cookout dishes — grilled steak, grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, and braised short ribs — and learn how to thoughtfully find the right wine to pair with each.

Wine grape guides

While white, rosé, and sparkling wines always go well with warm weather, it’s reds that tend to end up center stage with most summer meals. They’re also the style of wine that can be most difficult to navigate, and a tendency to simply purchase big, bold options with familiar names and grape varieties.

However, there’s a wealth of different directions you can go when selecting a summer red. Cabernet and Merlot are two of the most popular options, but do you really know the differences between the two, and when to select one over the other? Meanwhile, slightly more under-the-radar options like Cinsault and Carménère are often fantastic alternatives for those seeking crowd pleasing wines while still shaking up their go-to picks.

Finally, some of the worlds most storied wines, from Bordeaux to Chianti or Rhône-inspired California GSMs (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre) are blends rather than varietal bottlings. This creates a wealth of nuance and range of profiles that can be difficult to grasp, but a familiarity with the basics will take your wine appreciation to the next level.

Here are four topics you should be familiar with.

Wine serving tips

Knowing the grapes behind certain bottles is only half the battle when it comes to having a top-tier wine experience. Having a handle on how best to serve wine is also key. For instance, we all know wine should breathe, but should all wine really be decanted, and for how long? Perhaps even more important when hosting a crowd during which multiple bottles are being served: How long will an open bottle of wine last before spoiling?

You may not think twice about the shape of the bottle, but subtle touches can communicate scores of information about the flavor profile of the wine inside, such as whether or not the bottle has the high shoulders of a Bordeaux-style bottlings or the sloping shoulders that indicate a lighter style of red based off Burgundy grapes like Pinot Noir. Knowing what to look for can make your next trip to the wine shop a bit easier, and be a great conversation starter at wine-focused gatherings.

But if a conversation starter is what you’re going for, there’s arguably nothing better that pulling out a bottle of large-format wine. While most are familiar with the ubiquitous magnum, which holds two standard-sized bottles of wine, options expand from there, including the Jeroboam (or double magnum), the Methuselah (which holds up to 40 glasses of wine), or the Goliath (which fits three cases of wine into a single bottle).

Ready to get started? Read on to learn to serve wine like a pro.