With summer coming to an end, we asked 11 local wine connoisseurs to weigh in with a recommendation for the perfect wine to toast the end of one season and the beginning of another.
So before you fire up your grills for that last summer cookout, check out our list for a fitting companion.
A 1997 or 1998 Chardonnay from the Cambria Katherine vineyard in Santa Maria, Calif.
Picked by: Fred Knezevich, "keeper of the wines" at Helen's Garden and Cafe, 2908 O'Donnell St.
Price: $19.99
"It's got great texture. There are hints of honey, pear and ripe apple, and it's got a really nice, smooth finish. A lot of people tend to say it's buttery. It's a good wine if you're moving into fall, when the bodies of wine are usually a little deeper."
1999 Domaine Gibault Touraine Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire valley in France
Picked by: Michael Schudel, manager of Pinehurst Wine Shoppe, 6242 Bellona Ave.
Price: $8.99
"It's just a crisp, clean, refreshing wine. It's a dry white with tangerine flavors. It goes well with any seafood, from crab cakes to steamed shrimp. And it holds well with grilled meats for that final grill of the summer. It's also a nice cocktail wine to sit and have a little picnic with."
1998 Zind- Humbrecht Pinot d'Alsace
Picked by: Michael Dresser, Baltimore Sun wine critic
Price: $23.99
"My inclination is to look for a match with the seasonal foods of the region. Steamed crabs cry out for beer, so I'd look to a pairing with the exquisite sweet corn we get in August in the mid- Atlantic. For this, I'd pick a dry but fruity white with lots of flavor intensity and hints of corn fresh from the field. There is no white wine producer in the world I trust more than Zind-Humbrecht. This winery's least expensive wine, the Pinot d'Alsace, is typically the peer of a $50-$100 white Burgundy, but with no oak to mask the exquisite floral aromas and flavors of peach, pear, tropical fruit, exotic spices, lychee nuts -- and, yes, sweet corn."
1998 Castello di Ama Rosato Sangiovese Rose from Tuscany
Picked by: Nelson Carey, wine manager, North Charles Fine Wine & Spirits, 6213-A N. Charles St.
Price: $14
"This is a very dry, very refreshing rose wine. It is reminiscent of red cherry and crisp, bright red fruits, with a slight herbal tinge. We're closing out the summer, so this is the last opportunity to drink these nice dry roses. These are full-bodied, flavorful wines that you do serve chilled, so they're a perfect complement for warm balmy Baltimore summers outside."
1998 Sauvignon Blanc by Groth from Napa Valley
Picked by: Uwe Roehricht, director of food and beverage at Harbor Court Hotel, 550 Light St.
Price: $14.99
"There are so many good wines out there, it's hard to pick one. This is a fruity wine. It's light and not too heavy, and I can marry this with any kind of food. For years, people felt that white wine goes with white meats and good red wine goes with dark meats. This is old school. You can match any kind of wine with any kind of food."
1999 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand
Picked by: Alita Smith, bartender, Ruby Lounge, 802 N. Charles St.
Price: $24 to $26
"Cloudy Bay is very crisp and grapefruity. It's a staff favorite. Whenever we're sitting around and want to open a bottle of wine, this is it. If you're going to warm up for drinking red wines in fall, I think you should go out with the crispest one you can find."
1997 Calera Mount Harlan Pinot Noir from Santa Cruz, Calif.
Picked by: Jerry Pellegrino, owner and chef at Corks, 1026 S. Charles St.
Price: $42 to $60
"This is a good wine [when] summer's over and we start thinking about fall. It's not a big, heavy red wine. It's got great, earthy, dried-leaf aromas, a slight herbal-tea smell that brings to mind a lot of the fall vegetables like potatoes. It's a very silky pinot noir."
A nonvintage Delamotte brut champagne
Picked by: Mitchell Pressman, owner of Chesapeake Wine Co., 2400 Boston St.
Price: $42 to $45
"If you're going to toast something, why not toast with champagne? It's got real classic champagne flavors, which remind people of freshly baked bread. It's got a real clean fruit taste, a frothy texture, and it's dry. Whenever you have champagne, whatever you're doing becomes a celebration."
1998 Gundlach Bundschu Gewurztraminer
Picked by: Tim Schriver, wine broker and president of Grape Nuts, a Baltimore wine-lovers group
Price: $13.99
"It smells like honey and flowers, but it's really crisp, dry and refreshing on the palate. The crisp, refreshing white wines kind of cut through Baltimore's hazy summer months. This will give you a final taste of that."
1999 Macon-Fuisse by Gilles Noblet from the Burgundy region of France
Picked by: Todd Ross, wine consultant at Mills Wine & Spirit Mart, 87 Main St., Annapolis
Price: $11.99
"It's very fresh, very crisp, very light with lots of nice fruit flavors, including pear and apple. It's very nice for summertime drinking and it doesn't cost too much. It's a medium-bodied wine that's very pleasant, very enjoyable."
A 1998 or 1999 Glen Carlou Chardonnay from the Paarl region in South Africa
Picked by: Kevin Atticks, author of "Discovering Maryland Wineries"
Price: $12 to $15
"I visited South Africa last year and went from vineyard to vineyard tasting wines. I brought back a case and a half of this. It's very fresh and has lots of fruit flavors, especially pear and fig. Got a fair amount of oak but not too much. It's medium-bodied and it just goes great with summer."
