Which wines should you serve with a summer meal or barbecue? Alice King suggests warm-weather tipples to keep everyone happy

It’s a hot summer’s day, and friends and family are coming round. You’ve planned all sorts of delicious foods, including barbecued meat and lots of different salads, so what on earth should you give them to drink?

Go for sparkle
Fizz always goes down well. At the moment, Somerfield have some amazing offers on bubbly. The consistently good New Zealand sparkler, Lindauer, has been reduced from £8.99 to £5.99. Dry and crisp with lots of complexity, this really is brilliant value for money. My advice is to buy as much as you can afford – it will taste even better by Christmas.

Either serve on its own or mix it half-and-half with orange juice to make Bucks Fizz. If you are feeling very adventurous, make Pimm’s and use the Lindauer instead of lemonade. But be warned, your guests will get hammered pretty quickly.

Or, push the boat out and try a bottle or two of Mumm Cuvée Napa. This top Californian bubbly is dry with ice-cream soda-like overtones. Few people will turn their noses up at this.

Make sure you serve these sparkling wines chilled, and if you’re using an ice bucket (a saucepan or ordinary bucket will do the job just as well), remember to add water to the ice – this will keep the bottle cooler.

Pink drinks
Rosé always goes down well in the summer, but I would advise people to steer clear of Anjou rosé, as it is cloyingly sweet and tends to be quite badly made.

Waitrose always do a good line in the pink stuff. Three of their best are Winter Hill Syrah Rosé 2000 Vin de Pays d’Oc, France (£3.99) – dry with raspberry-like overtones; Hardy’s Stamp of Australia Grenache/Shiraz Rosé 2000 (£4.79) – slightly spicy with a hint of rose petals; and Château du Caraguilhes Rosé 2000, Corbières, France (£6.99) – an organic wine with serious class. The latter is full-bodied enough to go with all sorts of barbecued foods, including chicken, salmon and trout.

All white
There are hundreds of great whites around at the moment that are perfect for summer drinking. From Safeway, invest in a three-litre box (then you don’t have to worry about the ever-elusive corkscrew) of the South African Namaqua Dry White, Olifantsriver (£11.99, equivalent to £2.99 a bottle). It is light, easy-drinking and flowery.

If you prefer something slightly drier, try Marks & Spencer’s three-litre box of Vin de Pays de Toloson (£13.50, equivalent to £3.38 a bottle). This is the perfect complement to tangy summer salads, barbecued chicken or chargrilled vegetables.

Summer and being outside in the garden always makes me think of the most perfumed grape variety of all, Gewürztraminer. Although most of the best examples come from Alsace in France, Tesco have a really good one from New Zealand. Lawson’s Dry Hill Gewürztraminer 1999 might seem a bit pricey at £7.49, but just one gulp of this tropical-fruit-flavoured, slightly off-dry white will convince you that it’s worth the money. Because Gewürztraminer has such a lot of flavour, it will not only accompany chicken and fish (as one would expect of a white wine), but also has the guts to cope with barbecued steak and lamb.

Cool reds
People tend to steer clear of red wines in summer, but in my house they are simply put into the fridge. Most reds, with the exception of some of the very top clarets or extremely full-bodied, tannic reds, can and do taste good cold. So ignore your guests’ raised eyebrows and serve them some chilled red.

Beaujolais is traditionally served like this in France. Trade up from standard Beaujolais and pay a little bit more to try some of the wines from the villages in the region entitled to use their own name. I can recommend the Morgon Les Charmes, Domaine Brisson (£6.49 from Co-Op) and Fleurie Louis Jossé 1999 (£6.99 from Tesco). Made from the juicy Gamay grape, these are great served on their own or with beef, chicken, pork or barbecued vegetables.

One of the best boxed reds I have tasted recently that can also be served chilled is Stowells Merlot, Vin de Pays d’Oc (£13.99 from Threshers, Bottoms Up and Wine Rack, equivalent to £3.50 a bottle). If you mix this half-and-half with sparkling water, it makes a great base for a red-wine spritzer.

If you’ve got any questions for Alice, suggestions for other iVillagers about great wines, or warnings about grim drinking experiences, visit our wine message board, Let’s Talk about Food and Drink.