Some wine recommendations for summer sipping and a few hints for serving

Cool Drinks in Warm Weather

If not now, when? Summer is the high season for entertaining on the East End, the time when old friends, new friends, and others who may soon be friends are visiting. This is the designated party season, official cocktail time all over the Hamptons, and we are all exchanging invitations, masterminding our menus and devising our drinks.

Whether it is cocktails, lunch on the deck, an evening barbeque, or a beach picnic, one of the basic questions is whether to serve just wines or have a full bar. I find it best to have a bar either for a very small group, where I can handle the work, or a large enough group, where hiring a bartender is justified. Otherwise, there is nothing wrong with offering just wine and keeping a cold bottle of vodka nearby for anyone who specifically requests it. While some hosts are happy to let guests help themselves, I prefer, except on the most informal occasions, traditional hospitality where guests feel they are taken care of.

For large groups, I look for wines that are distinctive and high quality—after all, I want them to reflect my tastes and my household—but not too nuanced and not expensive. This is decidedly not the time to challenge the taste buds. The many intricacies of a fine wine will be lost if you are not giving some concentrated thought to its sensory qualities, and chances are that at a casual summer party you are focusing more on conversation than the contents of your glass. I say not expensive because unless you want to be perceived as an arriviste, costly wines, champagne excepted, are just not appropriate for these occasions.

With a worldwide excess of wine production, there are quite a few good wines out there—reds in particular—in the ten or twelve dollar range, and some for even less. Look for quality imports—Chile and South Africa are good bets at the moment—but make sure you taste a bottle or two before ordering by the case. I’ve been enjoying Excelsior, a South African Cabernet Sauvignon that sells at Sherry Lehman for eight dollars. The taste is rich, the tannins are balanced, and the fruit is strong enough to stand up to a slight chilling. I prefer my everyday reds more cellar temperature than room temperature and sometimes chill them slightly in summer.

I find some of the medium-priced California Chardonnays a bit too oakish and heavy for party drinking but there are many exceptions. I often serve a well-chilled Sauvignon Blanc. I look for a fragrance that is clear and discernable but not overwhelming—something suggestive of wildflowers and hay and freshly tilled earth. It’s both refreshing and satisfying to the palate. The Marlborough region of New Zealand produces a number of excellent Sauvignon Blanc wines. Babich, at about ten dollars, and Lawsons Dry Hills, at about fifteen dollars, are among my favorites. Both integrate a fine nose and distinct taste, and are available at many wine stores. Locally, Duck Walk produces Southampton White, a quite respectable Sauvignon Blanc blend. The taste is clean and mellow, if not quite as flinty and defined as the New Zealand competition. At a bargain price of eight dollars a bottle at the winery it is a bulls-eye, a dry, tangy wine choice for congenial drinking at big summer parties.