2023 Arkenstone Howell Mountain Estate Blanc

A hefty, dark bottle and a $145 price tag lets you know immediately that this white wine is unequivocally built for aging.

But with seriously warm evenings this summer plus the belief that there’s no time like now, I didn’t hesitate to uncork a bottle of the 2023 Arkenstone Howell Mountain Estate Blanc when a sample landed on my porch.

Produced by the family-owned winery in Angwin on Napa Valley’s Howell Mountain, it’s an elegant wine in the style of classic white wines of Bordeaux.

The 12-acre estate is perched on steep, rocky land with a dry climate. Its hallmark are white wines that exude minerality, and this one is no exception.

It is 93 percent Sauvignon Blanc and 7 percent Semillon that’s been aged 18 months in a concrete egg and French oak. The Semillon rounds off the sharp edges of the wine’s acidity and minerality, and adds a weightiness to make this a rather full-body wine.

Fragrant with honeysuckle and caramelized lemon, its complexity unfolds with tastes of kumquat, lemon meringue pie, and toffee with a resin-y back note.

Enjoy with a perfect roast chicken, crown of roast pork, or Thanksgiving turkey. Or with a creamy, herby pasta dish. Or even Indian butter chicken with naan.

Cheers: With only 229 cases produced of the 2023 Arkenstone Howell Mountain Estate Blanc, it is available only to winery club members or the winery’s mailing list. However, make an appointment for a private tasting experience ($150 per person), you’ll get the opportunity not only to taste the Estate Blanc, along with a variety of other wines, but to purchase a bottle of the Estate Blanc, if you like. The 90-minute experience also includes a tour of the vineyard and winery.

Esprit de Cote des Roses

What is summer without plenty of rosé?

Just not chill enough.

Summer is definitely better with a bottle of Esprit de Cote des Roses, a new release by leading leading rosé producer Gérard Bertrand in the South of France. The former rugby player now runs the largest biodynamic wine operation in the world.

Pale salmon in color, it’s a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Grenache Noir. The initial wine is blended with reserve rosé aged for several months in barrels before undergoing a second fermentation.

Gently effervescent, this bubbly opens up with the fragrance of red berries and white flowers. On the palate, it’s soft and easy drinking, caressing with strawberries, brioche and subtle minerality. Think strawberries and pound cake, and you get my drift.

Name a summer dish, and likely this wine will pair well with it — be it grilled chicken or fish, shrimp kebabs, crudo, turkey burgers, goat cheese salads, pasta salads, or hummus and crudites. Sip it by itself while catching some rays in the backyard, and it’s pretty hard to beat that, too.

Cheers: This rosé makes a great host/hostess gift, too, that won’t break the bank at about $22.99 a bottle at retailers such as Total Wine. That’s especially true because the bottle, itself, makes a memorable impression. Beautiful roses are embossed onto the glass turning it into an elegant piece along the lines of a more affordable and simpler Lalique. Who wouldn’t prize that?

More: Summer Sips