 Our friends at Cork on McKinney sent us over a list of four of the greatest summer wines on the planet! Perfect for grilling, casual gatherings, or simply sipping. Enjoy!
Panarroz
88 Points, $9.99
 This is an aristocrat priced like a working stiff. Spain's Jumilla has hot days, cold nights, dirt-poor soil and the ability to grow wines of great sophistication at little prices. This opulent, soft, dry, fruit-filled wine is amazingly versatile. Enjoy it with hamburgers - or at your most elegant dinner party.
Lush and luscious today it will improve in bottle for another year. It can be slightly chilled for summer drinking with food from the grill or enjoyed at room temperature when the weather cools down. It can even be enjoyed with seafood dishes, especially rich, meaty fish like tuna, salmon, or sea bass.
“A blend of Mourvedre, Grenache, and Syrah, the 2005 Panarroz is a wonderful value. It bursts from the glass with leather laced black fruits.”
The Wine Advocate, Best Buys, 6/30/06
La Noble Chardonnay
88 Points, $8.99
 La Noble Chardonnay is a consistent ‘best buy’ in both The Wine Advocate and the Wine Spectator. No wonder! This is a 100% Chardonnay grown in the coolest hillside vineyards of the south of France, made with no ageing in oak to maintain purity of fruit and bottled young for maximum freshness. Unsullied by oak or butter flavors, it is a throwback to the uncomplicated pleasure people took in wine centuries ago.
La Noble Chardonnay is a wonderful aperitif, a light, zingy way to whet the appetite. It is an excellent complement to a wide range of foods, from hot dogs on the grill on a warm summer evening to shrimp (caution: DO NOT throw your shrimp on the barbie, they can slip through) to fried chicken to an elegant dinner of scallops or lobster. Drink cool, not cold to enjoy all of the flavors and aromas.
“Wine Advocate readers have come to expect La Noble’s Chardonnay to appear every year in one of our value reports and 2005 doesn’t break its impressive string of successes.”
The Wine Advocate, 6/30/06
Pierre Boniface Apremont
88 Points, $15.99
 “The equivalent of drinking from a mountain stream running through cool, rocky crevices laced with wine.”
Robert M. Parker, Jr., The Wine Advocate
“This is as fresh as wine gets, the wine version of bubbling, crystal clear spring water. It is light in body, light in alcohol, alive and kicking on the palate, bone dry, and crisp at the finish. It reminds me of green apple, granite cliffs, and alpine meadows inhabited by of-age nymphs.”
Kermit Lynch, Wine Merchant
Light White, Savoie Joy: Spritzy, dry Boniface Apremont from Savoie - bottled joie de vivre - is a find... relish this simple Alpine white’s floral scent, grapefruity flavor and weightlessness. Inquisitive palates will discover pleasures in its unknown grape, called Jacquere.
Howard Goldberg, The New York Times
 Chateau du Donjon Minervois Rose $14.99
Limited availability, a Cork staff favorite!
Real wine lovers are not afraid to drink rose! This is not your grandmother’s white zinfandel; and it is not sweet. As a matter of fact, rose wines just may be the best wines for red wine lovers during the heat found in the dog days of summer. Great for just quaffing or to wash down some barbecue—Texas style. Excellent with spicy foods! Chateau du Donjon (Dungeon; it actually was one during the crusades) is an excellent producer from the south of Franch. This is a gorgeous dry rose that is pleasing crowds in both Europe and the U.S. 50% Grenache, 40% Syrah, 10% Cinsault. 1500 cases produced.
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