Three wines for summer nights

In Louisiana, we eat well 12 months out of the year, but there’s something about a summer menu—with its grilled meats, Gulf seafood and fruit-and-vegetable boom—that we anticipate all year. Al fresco dining is in full swing. The kids are out of school. And local farmers are harvesting a palette of goodies that won’t stop, from scarlet tomatoes to juicy watermelon. Dylan Vaughn of LeBlanc’s Frais Marché supermarket in the Drusilla Shopping Center assisted us in picking wines this month that help summer dishes shine.

Anciano
Gran Reserva 10 Year
Tempranillo
2005
$13

Here’s a medium- to full-bodied red that is perfect for nights around the grill. “This wine spends at least 24 months in American oak, then another 10 years in the bottle before [it’s] released,” says Vaughn, who calls it “dark, luscious and smoky.” He advises pairing it with anything that’s been smoked or properly charred. Look for notes of black cherry fruit, leather, musk and tobacco. The mellow finish makes it summery and accessible.

Pair it with: Grilled pork chops with smoked peach sauce, rib-eyes with blue cheese sauce or duck breast with blackberry glaze

13 Celsius
Sauvignon Blanc
New Zealand
2014
$13

For fans of grapefruit-pithy New Zealand-style sauvignon blancs, this one is a winner. “13 Celsius,” Vaughn says, “has sweet herbal notes with a crisp acidic backbone guaranteed to be best friends with anything from the sea.” If you chill this wine properly (to 13 degrees Celsius or 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit), you’ll know you’ve reached the correct temperature—the label on the bottle will turn blue.

Pair it with: Planked redfish with pesto, grilled shrimp with gremolata or fresh jumbo lump crabmeat with avocado drizzle

Angels and Cowboys
Rosé
Sonoma County
2014
$12

The balance of minerality and fruit in this rosé gives it hard-to-beat range for food pairings. Produced in Sonoma County in the traditional Provençal style, it’s a blend of white grenache, red grenache, merlot and petit verdot grapes. “This rosé single-handedly captivates summer days and nights in a bottle,” Vaughn says. With great acidity and a smooth finish, it’s drinkable by itself or alongside a variety of seasonal eats, including many that are usually hard to pair.

Pair it with: Ceviche, vegetable main courses like cauliflower steaks or roasted vegetable pasta, sushi and intense curries