Wines on the rocks are suited to summer

Temperature and humidity can affect how a wine tastes, so adjust the wine you drink when the temperature rises by adding two ice cubes to your glass. The hotter and muggier it gets, the more ice you add. So, on those especially hot, muggy days, serve the following four wines on the rocks. They are especially suited for the season. Keep a bottle or two in the fridge, well chilled.

2016 My Essential Rose (about $16 a bottle): This offering boasts a new bottle, new package and new grape sources but the same deliciousness. It has an amazing lightness on the palate, thirst-quenching edge and, most important, same quality and price.

I am continually on the hunt for high quality and high value in wine. I don’t really consider a wine’s origins until I ascertain its quality. Then I decide whether to buy it based on its price-quality ratio. It is a task that takes skill, and the deciding factor is what’s inside the bottle rather than an eye-catching label with clever verbiage and slogans, an attractive bottle or even the latest review from a publication.

Though I am always on the lookout for great roses, this wine is still my go-to. It is tasty, delicious and incredibly food-friendly, all at a great price.

2016 Birichino Vin Gris (about $17): Winemaker-partner John Locke, a talented, innovative vigneron, delivers one of the most delicious renditions coming out of California today, another pink wine that helps squelch the effects of the summer heat. I learned a long time ago, if you want a good rose, you have to set out to make a good rose. In this case, to produce the best pink wine he could, Locke resourcefully put together an interesting grape variety mix, including a smidgen of Vermentino, a white grape, from an all-star list of vineyard sources. The result: magic.

A side note about vin gris: Pinot noir is black pinot and pinot blanc is white pinot. What’s in between black and white? Gray, as in pinot gris. “Vin gris,” then, means “gray wine.”

2013 Maison L’Envoye Bourgogne Blanc (about $19): Most folks who see this bottle on the shelf won’t give it a second look. Its label is “plain Jane,” and its name is probably confusing to most. This wine is therefore a “destination” wine, meaning a purchaser would have to know about it and ask for it by name. It is not the kind of wine most retail stores, especially high-volume ones, would bother to carry. Because it will sell infrequently, it will lose a place on the shelf to something with a recognizable name, a high score or one that is significantly marked down.

This wine deserves better than that — it is a good selection, especially when considering price. This is 100 percent chardonnay from the region of Burgundy, France. The meager limestone soils in which the vines are planted, in tandem with the area’s cooler climate, produce a light, almost airy chardonnay, with a much more mineral, floral, ethereal character than fruit-driven, oak-laden renditions coming out of California.

I find lots of quality in this bottle, and it is one well worth seeking out. Try it instead of that New Zealand sauvignon blanc you normally buy. Have it with pan-seared fish you’re cooking (finish the dish by adding a tad of white wine and a thin slice of butter before serving).

2014 Maison L’Envoye Moulin-a-Vent “Vieilles Vignes” (about $21): I recently revisited this wine and was wowed. An additional 8 months of bottle age has done wonders for it. The grape variety here is gamay noir, a descendent of pinot noir, which at least partially explains why it has such deliciousness and food-friendliness.

It is grown in Moulin-a-Vent, a cru (highest regional quality designation) village in France’s Beaujolais region, on vines well over 100 years old (referenced by “Vieilles Vignes,” or old vines). Finally, there is a reason why so many of the top sommeliers in the country are rallying for this region and its wines. They are tasty, wonderfully friendly with a surprisingly wide range of foods and cooking styles, and, most important, provide sensational value.

Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants group. Follow his blog at chuckfuruya.com.