By now, July is long a distant memory 🗓 and we already can barely recall what we did — and drank 🍷 — in August so far. Yet, without skipping a single beat 🥁, at UnscrewMe we keep the monthly wine tips flowing even throughout the sticky summer season. 🥵

From obscure white wines at beer festivals 🤪 to chilled reds over polished dinners 🥶, we bring you a reassuringly refreshing list of wines to broaden your horizon and inspire you to go out and taste more — maybe you can even find a wine tasting near you on UnscrewMe. 🍾

Zingy Zweigelt

• Wine: 2017 Puszta Libre
• Producer: Claus Preisinger
• Region: Neusiedlersee, Burgenland, Austria 🇦🇹
• Story:
  Another wine we enjoyed during our excellent 👍 dinner at The Laughing Heart in Hackney. A blend of two typical Austrian black grape varieties 🍇, majority Zweigelt with a bit of St. Laurent. The winemaker likens this fresh wine to a good Beaujolais 🇫🇷 and uses similar techniques. We were surprised that it was served cooled, but this is exactly what this witty winemaker recommends for this particular wine in the heat of summer.
  The wine greeted us with a light nose and full-on fruit flavours, think cherry and raspberries. A smooth red summer wine that is just delicious and fun 😎.
  After drinking a glass, we could see why this wine was given 🏆 92 points by Falstaff.

Marvellous Madeleine

• Wine: 2014 Madeleine Angevine
• Producer: Danebury Vineyards
• Region: Stockbridge, Hampshire, England, UK 🇬🇧
• Story:
  On a nice warm evening in July, a friend who grew up in Ealing convinced us to join him and go to the Ealing Beer Festival 🍺. After brief research, we figured out that despite the name, they also serve an interesting range of English wines 😁, so we wasted no time and went there.
  As we tried a couple of wines, the one wine that stood out was the Madeleine Angevine by Danebury Vineyards 👏. Not a grape we came across often before 💡, we liked the floral notes combined with a clean mineral notes and balanced fruit character. The taste of the wine reminded us a bit of a Riesling, even showing some petrol flavours, while the nose seemed a tad reminiscent of a Bacchus. Overall, a very interesting and pleasant wine, well suited for a hot day in the park 🌳.
  The 2014 vintage won a 🏆 Bronze Medal at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2017, the wine has also repeatedly won 🏆 Bronze Medals at the International Wine & Spirit Competition.

Xenial Xarel·lo

• Wine: 2016 Xarel·lo (Organic)
• Producer: Finca Viladellops
• Region: Penedès, Catalunya, Spain 🇪🇸
• Story:
  What goes with Spanish food 🧀? Spanish wine, of course! That’s how we ended up drinking this beautiful Xarel·lo over dinner at Copita in Soho 🍽.
  Varietal Xarel·lo is still not something very commonly seen on many wine lists 🖍, so we were curious to try another example of this grape variety. More frequently, this grape that can be challenging to spell, is used in the sparkling wine Cava 🍾 as part of a blend.
  So, what did we make of this Xarel·lo? It is a beautifully smooth white wine with a pleasing fruit character, a hint of sweetness, maybe even a bit of honey flavour, and nice mineral notes. As it warmed up over our dinner, the nose reminded me more and more of a nice Riesling, which can only be a good thing! 😋
  (We used this wine to finally look up what is so hard about spelling this grape variety correctly 📚 — yes, it really isn’t a hyphen, but an interpunct or middot. We found an article by wine expert Miquel Hudin educational and interesting. 🎓)

Bonus: Ripe Riesling

• Wine: 2017 Riesling
• Producer: Palliser Estate
• Region: Martinborough, Wairarapa, New Zealand 🇳🇿
• Story:
  Okay, we’re cheating a bit 😉. But when we were at Wine Car Boot in June, it was so sunny and hot ☀️, it could well have been July or August. Based on past experiences, we are cautious when approaching a Riesling from the New World ⚠️. Luckily, sometimes we overcome our fears, helping us to go beyond tried and tested options 🥳. This extraordinarily hot afternoon was one of those days, so we set out to try this Riesling from The New Zealand Cellar in Brixton 🛒. And it was probably the best decision we made that day.
  This wine was full of refreshing fruit flavours, we thought of peach, mandarin and ripe lemon. In addition, we also got some sweetness and petrol notes. A Riesling at its best and without a question worth of a bonus mention in our wine highlights, even in the wrong month. 🤣

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We’re always happy to hear about new restaurants with great wine lists, newly opened wine bars in London or just a nice wine you discovered recently.

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We are currently preparing to bring some new exciting features to UnscrewMe soon, but before we will add more events for September and October — expect a busy wine tasting season after the summer!

First published in August 2019.
Also available at https://medium.com/unscrewme/july-2019-wine-highlights-8e41a3c4ec66