Wine Openers

Hot time, summer in the city (and everywhere else). The season begs for casual, outdoors entertaining, and that means sharing meals with family and friends at the park, the beach or simply at home on the patio.

Summer dining is dominated by well-chilled crisp white wines and our occasional series on summer wines will get back to those next time.

But if you’re a red-wine lover, summer can be the cruelest season, indeed. Red drinkers often cringe when it comes to summer dining since many people are reluctant or don’t know how to serve red wine in the summer and a 90-degree day normally isn’t conducive to sipping a warm, full-bodied red.

The Marchesi dé Frescobaldi Rémole 2013 is perfect for summer dining. Served slightly chilled, it’s bright flavors match well with casual seasonal dining.

The answers are easy.

A slightly chilled red (yes, it’s OK to do that) is a fine thing in the summer and one wine sure to please the red-crazed masses (and your pocket book) is Marchesi dé Frescobaldi’s Remole, a Toscana IGT blend of Sangiovese (85 percent) and Cabernet Sauvignon (15 percent) with layered aromas of cherries, cranberries, watermelon and spice.

This affordable ($10 MSRP!) is an easy drinking and surprisingly elegant wine that is a favorite for casual entertaining.

The Frescobaldi family history goes back more 1,000 years in Florence and more than 700 years and 30 generations in the Remole area east of Florence.

It’s there, so family legend holds, that sometime in the 1300s poet Dino Frescobaldi smuggled parts of the “Divine Comedy” to another Dante, this one Dante Aligheri, thereby enabling Aligheri to finish his epic masterpiece.

By the 1400s, Frescobaldi wines were being served at the tables of the Papal Court and Henry VIII.

Since then, Frascobaldi wines have continued to win honors and encomia and today the Frescobaldi family makes a wide range of wines, including some of their finest in partnership with the Robert Mondavi family.

The versatile Remole is a terrific pairing for summer barbecue when served slightly chilled (15-20 minutes in the refrigerator is enough), the wine’s bright fruity notes of plum, red raspberry and cherries (retained by hand-picking and four months stainless steel) highlighting the black-sweet fire-char of grilled meats.

And at only 12 percent alcohol, the wine won’t bring an early end to the good times.

Remole Toscana IGT, by Marchesi dé Frescobaldi (professional sample)

Sangiovese 85%, Cabernet Sauvignon 15%

Price: $10

Frescobaldi wines are available widely this summer at Milan’s Expo 2015.

Information: http://www.frescobaldi.it