Vale Dos Pombos Vinho Verde, Portugal 2021 (£6, The Co-op) In this summer of insane heat, we’ve all had plenty of opportunities to work out what’s best to drink when the goings got too hot. As in all extreme situations, there may well be a seeking-out of the comforts of long-gone safer-seeming times: a can of 1980s-style shandy or a stubby of the French version Panaché was what I found myself craving on one particularly sweltering afternoon. Whatever attributes it might have, bubbles, of varying degrees of frothiness and force (even a very slight tingle of spritz will do) seem to be a must for heatwave drinks, which I reckon has something to do with a barely conscious association of fizzy liquids with the cooling frothing waves of the sea. The other rule: low – if not (necessarily) no – alcohol, which explains the attraction of wines such as traditional Vinho Verde from northern Portugal, with, in the case of Vale Dos Pombos, a just-perceptible little prickle of CO2, and a pleasingly green apple sour-tang to go with its fruit-salad flavours.
Nivola Lambrusco, Emilia-Romagna, Italy NV (£14.99, or £11.99 as part of a mixed case of six bottles, majestic.co.uk) The Italians, who I understand have had some years of experience with the kind of temperatures we’ve been enduring, are absolute masters of the light and the fizzy. Prosecco, which often clocks in at about 11% abv or less, is the most famous example, of course, and that sweetly soothing cream soda foam, with or without a spicy seasoning of Campari or, if your sweet tooth must, Aperol, is almost the Platonic form of the refreshing beachside drink; Aldi Organic prosecco (£7.49) offers the experience for a very realistic price. I can’t quite imagine drinking it around the pool, but the darkly bubbling Italian sparkling red wine, Lambrusco, is every bit as good as prosecco in the heat. Wines such as Nivola or the even more vivid and vivacious Venturini Baldini Montelocco Lambrusco Rosso Biologico (£15.99, corksofbristol.com) are also 11% or thereabouts. And if prosecco is like a dripping sweet pear, these Lambruscos work their cooling mouthwatering magic like a cool draught of dark, tart-tangy, sappy blackberry and black cherry juice.
Sprigster Sparkling Botanical Infusion, Wiltshire, England NV (£15, sprigsterdrinks.com) My other favourite light Italian fizz comes from Piedmont on the other, western side of northern Italy from prosecco country. Moscato d’Asti has half as much alcohol as prosecco (5%). But in the case of a wine such as Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato d’Asti 2021 (£11.50, 37.5cl, oddbins.com) it has around twice as much flavour: a wonderful frothy sweet swirl of peach, melon and pear and muscat grapes. Once the thermometer’s topped 40C, even 5% alcohol can seem counter-productive. Fortunately the revolution in adult no and low-alcohol fizz alternatives to wine has opened up other properly refreshing, dry-tasting drinks. My new favourite comes from Pythouse Kitchen Garden in Wiltshire, which sounds like the kind of place you’d be able to find plenty of fragrant shady corners to hide with a book in a heatwave. It’s made by blending a botanical mash of distilled grain vinegar, water, hops, fennel seeds, rhubarb and ginger with apples, gooseberries and spring water: a rejuvenating elixir, it turns out, on even the hottest of days.
Follow David Williams on Twitter @Daveydaibach
