Summer food is all about juice—real, bursting, garden‑fresh ripeness, not the store‑bought approximation of freshness. Think about it–is it truly a peach if juice isn’t forming rivulets down your wrist when you take a bite? Is it actually a sausage if it doesn’t ooze juices when pricked with a fork? What’s your chin for, if not to catch the dribble? The foods of summer are all about drip and sizzle—and your wine should enhance that gustatory experience.

Below are some pairing ideas for five of summer’s best ingredients—stone fruits, corn, tomatoes, sausage, and what I’m calling “Levantine” (savory summer squash, eggplant, or zucchini served in salads, light pastas, or dipped in one of Yotam Ottolenghi’s myriad slatherings like his miso mayos, tzatzikis, hummuses, lebnehs, or tarator spreads). 

What you make with these ingredients is up to you, but remember–late‑summer flavor is now at its peak, so don’t overdo it and be sure to let the seasonality shine through.

Summer Stone Fruits

Peach, nectarine, mango and apricot are essential summer flavors. Unadorned, they’re magical. But when cooked, you may need to balance the breadth of their sweetness–salt enhances, while capsicum (cayenne, paprika, togorashi) adds depth and contrast. These elements often come alive in chutneys and salsas, which introduce controlled heat and sour notes. And if you’ve never grilled a ripe peach, you owe it to yourself to try this caramelized deliciousness.

A classic pairing for stone fruit flavors is cold Riesling, typically German, or perhaps a Spätlese made from fruit that has been left on the vine for longer than usual to allow more tropical flavors to develop. T

Selbach-Oster’s Zeltinger Schlossberg Sonnenuhr Spätlese is Johannes Selbach’s Mosel estate wine, always weighty with a rich intensity, but simultaneously somehow breezy and ethereal. Or seek out Fritz Haag’s Spät offering, Juffur, a high parcel from Mosel that embarks upon a similar flavor journey. Consider reaching for any of Hermann J Wiemer’s single-vineyard Rieslings from Seneca Lake, all at Kabinett or Spätlese levels of sweetness–these are as fine as any American Rieslings.

Sweet Corn

Most of the time, corn occupies a decidedly middle ground of the flavor spectrum. It’s a base ingredient in everything from candy to chips, a maize-colored canvas upon which you can overlay other flavors to make it sing. That is, except in summer when corn is at its freshest, especially eaten right off the cob.

Sweet corn pairs beautifully with Chardonnay, a grape variety that is also rarely seen without makeup–whether it’s a kiss of oak, a waft of lingering lees, or a hint of oxygen contact. Whatever you throw on, or at, your corn–Tajin, Kewpie mayo, salted butter, extra virgin olive oil—the flavors will pair seamlessly with a Chardonnay that’s crisp and not blowsy.

When selecting a Chardonnay, make sure it’s crisp, not too ripe, and has a light oak imprint. I’ve been drawn to more savory iterations lately, like Gavin Chanin’s Bien Nacido Vineyard, which manages to capture the sea air in the bottle. Or, up in Oregon, the Eola Amity Hills bottling from Anna Matzinger and Michael Davies (of Matzinger Davies) provides a forthright attack that culminates in a saline bite on the finish. One more for good measure—the talk of salinity put me onto it—seek out the Forjas del Salnés bottling, Leirana, Rodrigo Mendez’s old vine Albarino from the Rias Baixas. This wine is so flavorful, you may not even have to season your corn.

Tomatoes

On a recent trip to San Francisco, my wife and I passed literal truckloads of tomatoes en route to canneries-- a harbinger of tomato season. Ripe tomatoes are natural perfection, so don’t mess with them too much. Good olive oil, a little burrata or fresh mozzarella, a panzanella salad, or perhaps (best of all) chilled gazpacho can elevate a seasonal tomato’s already formidable appeal–no cooking required.

Pairing wine with tomatoes can be tricky, but it’s not impossible. You have to match a tomato’s inherent acidity without upstaging it, remembering that heirloom varieties have different levels of acid. A sturdy rosé, a subtly funky orange wine, and sherry are always a good way to go. Chateau Musar’s “Jeune” Rosé of (mostly) Cinsault is delicious and affordable; the Listàn Negro Rosado from Los Bermejos on the Canary Island of Lanzarote is more structured with juicy watermelon flavors and a fiercely volcanic minerality. And Tablas Creek’s top pink, Dianthus, is built like Bandol with a firm elegance.

For gazpacho, pair a dry Fino or Amontillado sherry–there is really no other option. I love the wines of Equipos Navazos, especially La Bota del Fino, but anything from the fine house of Lustau would do as well. 

Sausage

Whenever I discuss sausage (which is more often than you’d think), there are always follow-up questions starting with--what kind? Are we talking spicy linguica, gamey merguez, hot chorizo, mild knackwurst, toothsome morcilla, juicy kielbasa, lap cheong, kupati, hot dogs, brats, weisswurst, chicken, veal, beef, pork? Impossible? (Maybe not…)

Red wine is the best pairing for sausage, but orange is also an acceptable choice. Tannins should be moderate, oak should be all but absent, and acidity is key. The texture should resemble a knife, almost bladelike to cleanse the palate, and it should be chillable.

There are many options to choose from. I find myself drifting to Spain and Italy, like a light Garnacha from Comando G., Ribeira Sacra Mencias from Adega Algueira, or Raul Perez. A bottle of Lambrusco would be nice to have on hand as a fallback. But my go-to would have to be the fruit-skin crunchiness of a Teroldego. Elisabetta Foradori or the Trente producer de Vescovi Ulzbach, who makes three, the most accessible of which might be their simple Rosso. 

Levantine

Be sure to make space on the Weber for kebabs or a grill basket of sliced summer squashes–slabs of eggplant and zucchini, scored, salted, oiled, and ready to absorb some wood smoke. Toss with crumbled feta and cherry tomatoes, drizzle with good olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, and a dusting of herbs, and you have a fantastic accompaniment for any dish.

Go with Mediterranean whites from Slovenia, Sicily, or Greece. I recommend the Goriska Brda Sauvignon (Blanc) from Katja Kabaj, an exotic, herbal, and bright wine with a citrus aroma and a lean, saline palate. You’ll find a similar flavor spectrum in the range of Carricante from Etna, in Sicily–a lemony white with a crisp minerality and bright, cutting acidity. Planeta’s is reliable; Girolamo Russo is better still. Sonoma County’s Centennial Mountain is California’s first-ever Carricante, and is worth keeping an eye on.

Finally, there’s Assyrtiko, which is arguably Greece’s finest white wine, thrillingly terse and tangy on the palate. There are many Assyrtikos to choose from, but arguably the best come from the island of Santorini. One of the finest I’ve tasted in recent months comes from Hatzidakis, which has a bit more breadth than most Assyrtikos, while still retaining that lemony, salty, sea-like minerality.