As far as summers go, this one has been a very mild one around here. I’m not complaining mind you, in light of the previous three summers, this one has been very pleasant, rain now and then, temperatures only hit the nineties a few times, almost picture perfect. The only down side has been that because of the really long cold winter, it has taken my vegetable garden longer to produce any zucchini, cucumbers and tomatoes.

This summer I’ve experimented with new white wines I hadn’t tried before. Overall I’m making a bigger effort to get out of my comfort zone and try more red and white wines. A few have been really good.

One of the white wines that I hadn’t had before is Concannon Selected Vineyard, Sauvignon Blanc, 2012. A California white wine that was very light and tart, with a grapefruit aroma, and a clean taste. It had a nice light finish.

Another new wine we had was one of the wines we bought in Texas. Becker Vineyards, Wildflower, Fleur Sauvage, 2012. This is a Texas High Plains white wine blend. This wine was off dry, demi-sec. It was a wine that went really well with spicy food.

The third one is one that we’ve had many times, Toscana Villa Antinori, an Italian white blend. The vintage was 2011 and super tasty. The wine was tart and dry, with a mineral taste like a Sauvignon Blanc. The first taste was grapefruit with a medium finish.

One of the best things I’ve discovered about wine is that there is always a new wine to taste. No one can ever say that they’ve tasted them all. This is a passion that can never be fulfilled, but will never get boring either.