2023 Larkmead Lillie Napa Valley Estate Sauvignon Blanc

Summer heat may beg for chilled wines. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice oomph and lush body.

Not when you uncork a bottle of the 2023 Larkmead Lillie Napa Valley Estate Sauvignon Blanc, of which I received a sample.

It’s 100 percent Sauvignon Blanc but made in a Bordeaux-style, meaning it’s not only rich tasting but full-bodied.

Fermented in new oak barrels, this isn’t your racy New Zealand-style Sauvignon Blanc with searing acidity. Instead, this is a wine that lushly fragrant with grapefruit and white flowers that tastes of lemon curd, milk bread,, and melon, and boasts a flinty quality. Highly regarded, it’s been described by others as a “Sauvignon Blanc that drinks like a Chardonnay.” Though, thankfully, without being achingly oaky.

At $75 at the winery, it might not be a wine you nonchalantly pour while noshing popcorn and watching Netflix. But if you’re having friends and family over for a festive feast of grilled chicken, whole fish, shrimp or scallops, this wine is sure to impress.

Cheers: Founded in 1895, Calistoga’s Larkmead Vineyards is one of the oldest family-owned wineries in the Napa Valley. Since 1948, the 115-acre estate has been owned by the Solari family. Fun fact: Poet and writer Robert Lewis Stevenson of “Treasure Island” and “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” fame was a frequent visitor to the property in the 1880s.

2022 Martha Stoumen Solo Act

Are you a fan of natural wines? I sure am. There’s something a little wild and unexpected about them that makes them such a joy to behold.

Martha Stoumen has long been a leader in the natural wine movement. A self-funded, first-generation female winemaker, she’s known for her low-intervention wines that spotlight off-the-beaten-path Italian varietals.

Uncork a bottle of the 2022 Martha Soutmen Solo Act ($37), and it’s like you’re sitting in the middle of an autumn apple orchard that’s inexplicably next-door to a cantaloupe field. This white wine blend has so much going on. It tastes of orange blossom, apricot and quince, and even a little floral honey. But there’s also salinity and a subtle barnyard note that balances out all that fruit with a bit of savoriness.

With a distinctive label that looks like one of those prints made by floating oil paints on water, Solo Act is 39 percent Roussane, 35 percent Marsanne and 26 percent Muscat Blanc, all sourced from a Contra Costa vineyard.

It would be dynamite with a smoked trout salad or even bagels with lox. It’s such an intriguing wine that when it comes to pairing you’d be wise to just let your imagination run wild.

Cheers: Last year, Stoumen joined the Overshine Collective, a wine group with six distinct labels founded b y David Drummond, a former Google executive. It allowed her not only to expand her offerings and her reach, but to open a tasting room in downtown Healdsburg. At this homey spot, you can taste her singular wines, and enjoy events like clothing sales, tarot-card readings, and food pop-ups.