My Favorite Picnic Wines for Spring

Ep 50

As the sun starts to shine brighter and the weather warms up, there's no better way to embrace the beauty of spring than by enjoying a delightful picnic with friends and family. 

And what better way to elevate your outdoor gathering than by pairing it with the perfect wines?

I may not be super outdoorsy but I can definitely appreciate a great picnic and today, I’m sharing 5 of my favorite wines to take on your next picnic.

Blaufränkisch is an ideal pairing for intense-flavored foods such as for a BBQ and I bet you probably didn’t think about taking Champagne on your next picnic but it’s a perfect spring picnic pairing!

Or maybe you need the perfect wine for your next seafood meal or for some of your favorite fried foods. What about grabbing a bottle of what I call sunshine in a bottle? Or the wine I call lemonade for adults! I mean yum!

So, if you are ready to find the next perfect wine for your springtime picnic press play and listen in!

And after you listen in I’d love to know which of these you tried on your next picnic! You can message me on Instagram @corkandfizz because I’d love to know what you tried!

Related episodes: 

French Wine 101 - https://www.corkandfizz.com/wine-blog/guide-to-wine-podcast-episode-19

All about Sparkling Wine - 

https://www.corkandfizz.com/wine-blog/guide-to-wine-podcast-episode-44

Episode Highlights:

• Blaufrankisch - Aromas, structure, food pairings, cost and my favorite bottles

• Colombard - Aromas, structure, food pairings, cost and my favorite bottles

• Brachetto d’Acqui - Aromas, structure, food pairings, cost and my favorite bottles

• Picpoul - Aromas, structure, food pairings, cost and my favorite bottles

• Champagne - why this is a perfect picnic wine, food pairings, cost and which are my favorites

• Serving temperature of all wines mentioned

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Transcript

0:09

Interested in learning about wine, but not sure where to start? You're in the right place. Welcome to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. I'm your host, Haley Bullman, and I'm so glad you're here. I'm a wine enthusiast turned wine educator and founder of the Seattle based wine tasting business, Cork and Fizz. It is my goal to build your confidence in wine by making it approachable and lots of fun. You can expect to learn everything from how to describe your favorite wine to what to pair with dinner tonight and so much more. Whether you're a casual wine sipper or a total cork dork like myself, this podcast is for you. So grab yourself a glass and let's dive in. Welcome back to another episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine. And if this is your first episode, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here and wanting to learn a little bit more about wine. Today's is a very fun episode. I'd probably say that before all of them. I think they're all very fun episodes. But today we're kind of getting into the spirit. I even have some sunshine outside here in Seattle. So I feel like the weather's cooperating with me too. We're going to talk about my favorite spring picnic wines. And so I really just there's something special about a picnic. It's so funny. I'm not an outdoorsy person. Ask anybody. I just like I don't enjoy hiking. I don't like camping. I've never gone camping. I guess I can't say I don't like it. But there is just something special about a picnic. Now in my mind, a picnic can be anything from, you know, you go to the park and you lay out a blanket, you know, you sit on the blanket and enjoy some food. You can bring, like, a cute little basket, or maybe you grabbed a takeout. You know, my husband and I love doing these picnics on the beach where we go and grab a Thai food takeout, and then head up to the beach and they have these, you know, nice logs to sit on, and we just sit in the sand and eat our Thai food and look at the waves and it's really lovely. Or it can mean just hanging out in your backyard. You can be sitting at a table. I just feel like it's like, you know the vibe of a picnic. Right? It's light. It's bright. It's fun. You're enjoying the sunshine. That is the vibe that I put into picking these wines. And before I go into the wines, I have to tell you a fun little story, probably one of my favorite picnics other than those beach picnics. My husband and I did a cute little picnic in Spain when we visited, and this was right after I graduated and we went to Madrid. And one of my favorite things to do there is just grab some food from the grocery store like super simple. The food there is just so good that even the grocery store food is amazing. Just grab like a loaf of fresh bread, some good old jamon, the fancy ham that is a lot like prosciutto, grab a fresh fruit, maybe a salad. And of course, grab yourself a bottle of wine, which of we needed to do. And then I think we may have taken the stemless wine glasses from the hotel. So we made sure that we had some glasses to drink from. But we just set out a blanket in the park. Now, I think in the US, drinking in the park is illegal. So just a heads up on that one. Not sure if you can do that here, but it was such a perfect afternoon. And we even made a friend, of this giant goofy golden retriever. And I think he fully ate a stick when he gave up trying to get our food. But he was lovable and wonderful, and it just it was just it made me so happy. So these last few weeks have been a little bit more difficult just with work stuff and being busy. And so whenever I picture going on a picnic and enjoying a bottle of wine with friends or my husband or family, it just makes me smile. So I figured it would be a great episode for the podcast. So, hopefully, I can make you smile as well. Now, obviously, any wine can be a picnic wine, but these are gonna be my top suggestions on just what I think of when I think of a picnic. Some of the things that, like, I'm keeping in mind or I kind of tried to, like, figure out what about these wines made them a picnic wine. So for me, lighter bodied wines. There is a time and a place for that full bodied Cabernet that's luscious and rich. And to me, a picnic is not not the place for that. I also really like fresh aromas. I think it goes with those spring vibes with the flowers coming up and the trees blooming. Another thing, which I can't guarantee with any of these wines, but when you're shopping for this, I keep this in mind. Having a screw cap is actually really, really helpful on a picnic. One, in case you forget a corkscrew. 2, it's a lot easier to close the wine off if you don't finish it, and it's easier to put the screw cap on in between glasses. You know, if you set the wind down in the grass, you don't have to worry about if you have a screw cap on it. I also think low cost. Honestly, I'm probably not gonna except for one of these on the list, I did kinda get into the splurge area. But for the most part, $15 and under is about what I tend to spend on a picnic wine. But maybe if I'm celebrating or doing something special as you will note on wine number 5 that I talk about, I may go a little over that. And then the last thing, and this isn't required on all of these. I just noticed that it's something I think about. Bubbly tends to go really well on a picnic. So you'll notice I talk about that in a couple of these. Now that I've kind of hinted it a little bit and told you all about it, why don't we get into learning what are my favorite spring picnic wines? Starting with wine number 1, we are going to talk about Blau Frankisch. Now that probably sounded German. It's actually Austrian Blau Frankisch. It is blau frankisch. So you ever see that anywhere. However, if you wanna search it, I will also have it in the show notes for you. I know it's sometimes hard when you hear something and then to try to figure out how you spell it. I am a terrible speller, so I am there with you. This is Blaufronkeisch. It is an Austrian red. It's super fun, and you really have to try it if you haven't already. In terms of aromas, it's all across the board. So you've got some really nice fruit aromas like blackberry and cherry, but it does go a little deeper. You have a little bit of this allspice characteristic to it, some dark chocolate, potentially even these green notes, like green pepper, earthy, kind of think about like potting soil, and just like that fresh smell of spring is something that you can find in this. Now these might sound like really rich aromas, and you're like, Hailey, you just said you don't want a rich wine. But the thing is, this wine is light to medium bodied. So it has these intense aromas and flavors while still being kinda lighter on the palate. Remember, the body of the wine is how heavy it feels in your mouth. So a light bodied wine I compare it to different types of milk. So a light bodied wine is like a skim milk in terms of just like very light, almost watery as opposed to a full bodied wine is like whole milk, very viscous and coats your mouth. So, typically, on these, they tend to be light to medium bodied. We got medium plus acidity. You'll note that light body tends to connect to higher acidity as well. I have a tendency to pull out a lot of high acidic wines because that is my style. But I have had some listeners mention that they prefer lower acidity, so I'm gonna try to throw some in here that aren't quite as. But this one's medium plus, so it's not totally high like a Pinot Noir or a Gamay, but it gets up there. There are medium tannins. Remember, tannins are the things that make your mouth feel very dry. I do not love tannins, so I tend to reach for red wines that are medium to low tannin structure and medium plus alcohol. So there is a little bit more of a kick to this. Picnic wines, I tend to go a little lower alcohol, but this one's worth it, so I allow it. This wine is similar too, so I thought it'd be fun to kinda compare these to wines you might be a little more familiar with. So this wine is similar in structure to a Gamay. So remember that is a wine that's like Pinot Noir. It comes from the region of Beaujolais in France if you remember from our French 101 episode, I think that was in part 1. It might have been in part 2. So, yeah, you'll have to listen to both of them if you haven't already. There's a French wine 101 and a French wine 101 part 2 that you can listen to back in the earlier episodes. But this one is similar to Gamay. It's got that lighter to medium bodied higher acidity, not as many tannins, which makes it very food friendly. However, in terms of flavor, just a quick reminder, if you are not on my mailing list yet, what are you waiting for? I would love for you to join. When you do, you'll get a free shopping guide that has 15 of my favorite wines under$15. Head to korkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and there'll be a little section where you can join the mailing list. I send out a weekly newsletter filled with wine tips, recommendations, special offers, and so much more. Now let's get back to the show. It's richer. So it's like a Syrah, a Malbec, or even a Monastral, which is like a Mourvedre. So it's kind of this fun position of a lighter wine with these really rich flavors. It also goes by other names. So if you see Lemberger, l e m b e r g e r, I believe this is the German name for it. And then also Kiekfrankos, k e k f r a n k o s. And I believe this is the Greek name. So it's Blaufrankisch, Lemberger, or Kikfrankos are all the same grape. They're just made in different regions and in different styles, of course. So in terms of where it's made, we've talked about this a little bit. It is an Austrian grape, but interestingly enough, when I did the research, the country that has the most acres of vineyards dedicated to this grape is actually Hungary. So maybe I've never had a Blaufronkeisch from Hungary, but maybe you'll find one. Maybe it's also called Lemberger and that's why I'm not thinking of it. But you'll also find this wine. So you'll find it from Austria, Hungary. You'll also find it from Germany, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, and many others. In terms of food pairing, this could actually be one where it works really well when your picnic turns more into a barbecue and you're cooking up burgers on the grill. Or you could do the ultimate pro move, right, and grab your favorite takeout burger for the picnic and pair it with this. I also think it pairs really well with smoked sausages or even think about, like, peppery charcuterie on a picnic. I feel like a lot of the salami has a little bit more of those pepper notes. This Blanc Franchesh will work really well with that if you're more of a charcuterie and cheese picnic person. And it does have a lot of intense flavor. So whatever food you choose, it should have some intensity of flavor as well just so the wine doesn't overpower it. Finally, in terms of just some logistics, cost wise, I'm pretty sure you can get these for around $15, maybe going up to$20 if you wanna be a little more fancier. It also depends on where it's from. Right? I'm sure New World areas like the US where you can find some Lafrank ish will be a little more expensive versus Austrian styles tend to be $15 or under. Now serving temperature, the official sources say room temp, which is like 60 to 68 degrees. However, I would say it's great with a bit more of a chill on it. So like 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. So what this means, you're like, how do I measure the temperature of my wine? Just stick the wine in the fridge for about 30 minutes before sipping them or try to keep them in a cooler, maybe not with ice, just somewhere kind of insulated when transporting it for the picnic. And some of my favorite bottles, if you want to try to look for these, I'm always very careful about giving specific bottle recommendations because I know you might not always be able to find these where you're at. So my best suggestion as always is to go to your local wine shop and say, hey. I'd love to try a Blas Franches for this picnic I'm going on. What would you recommend? But just in case, you can find these wines. These are 3 wines that I really love, and maybe you can find them. So the first one is Evolucio Blaufrankisch, and this one is an Austrian wine. Evolucio is evoluci0. And there's a really cute little label on it. I think it has some birds if I'm remembering correctly, But this one was only about $12 here in Seattle. So even after importing, it was very low cost and very delicious. Another Austrian wine, it's actually really funny. This is the, like, this is the wine I think of when I think of Blaufrenkisch. It's one of the very first ones I had, and I can remember the moment that we tried it. It was actually in the backyard of a house my husband and I used to rent before we moved to the house we are in now. We had some friends over, we were grilling out, and I believe this was like the second bottle so I went in to grab something. I was like, oh, I remember the the person at the wine shop saying that this would go well with burgers. It's like, oh, it's perfect. So I grabbed this one and I really wanted to share it with some friends. And one of the friends absolutely fell in love with it, and now I just, like, connect her with this wine, which is really funny. And I, of course, loved it too. I when I started writing this episode, I knew I wanted to talk about this wine, but I, for the life of me, could not remember the producer. I am not great about that. Like, if anybody were to ask me, what is, like, that one wine that just made you, like, totally fall in love with 1? I'd be like, I have zero clue actually. I was like, I know what styles of wine are fun and I have these moments and memories in my brain, but I don't have the exact producer. But what I did remember is there was an octopus on the label and that it was from Austria. So I did a quick Google search, and I tend to take photos or not a Google search, actually. It was a search in my photos on Google Photos. So I take pictures of most of the bottles that I drink, and I just searched Google Photos for an octopus and ta da. Thank God for Google search and image reading capability. I found this wine, but funny enough it's actually not 100% Blaefrankish. It's a blend, which includes Blaefrankish and some other Austrian grapes, but it was called Beck, b e c k, Inc, Like I n c k, like, you know, or I n k. Goodness. I can't even spell when I'm looking at the word. Beck Inc Blaufrenkisch blend. Actually does have a full 100% Blaufrankisch. And one of my core crew members tasted it during our virtual tasting party when we talked about Blaufronkeisch probably about a year or so ago, and she recommended it. The label's bright blue. So if you see it, producer's Judith Beck. Give it a try. And, finally, one not from Austria. It's actually one from New York that I've had, and it comes from Weiss Vineyards, w e I s, up in the Finger Lakes of New York. It's a really just I think they're doing a really great version for a new world. It's a little fruitier. It still has a lot of spice and good, you know, richness to it. And this one was around at $26. And I I don't remember if I said with that Beck Inc, Blaufronkisch blend. This one's gonna be a little harder to find, but I did find it online for $18. Okay. So that was wine number 1, Blau Frankish. Moving on to wine number 2. This podcast is sponsored by Repour Wine Savers. Listen, I love wine. But that doesn't mean I want to drink a full bottle every night. You see, it's always a risk opening a bottle knowing I'll only have a glass or 2, but now I don't worry about that at all because I have repour. These little contraptions will keep your open bottles of wine good for up to 3 months by removing oxygen from the bottle using fancy chemistry. And they're so easy to use. I simply open a bottle of wine, cork, or screw cap just like normal, and enjoy my glass or 2. Then when I'm ready to call it a night, I rip the foil off my Repour wine saver and place it in the bottle in place of the cork or screw cap, and then stick the bottle in the fridge. Simple as that. Then whenever I grab another glass from that bottle in the future, I just make sure to put the Repour back on as soon as I'm done pouring. It's that easy. Wanna give Repour a try? Head to repour.com, repour.com, and use code corkandfizz for 10% off your order. That's repour.com and use code corkandfizz. No spaces in that and the and is spelled out. So it's cork andficc. Once you have repour, you'll never have to worry about opening a bottle of wine just for one glass. I mean, heck. Now you can try 2 or more wines at the same time and have your own at home wine tasting. This podcast is sponsored by The Court Crew Virtual Wine Club. Interested in trying new wines but not sure where to start? Or maybe you've been listening to this podcast for a while and you love the idea of tasting wine live with me. If that's you, come join my Court Crew Virtual Wine Club, and you'll get to sip wine with me twice a month while I help you find new favorite wines. The Court Crew is not your ordinary wine club. This is a community of people who are passionate about exploring new flavors, learning about different wine styles, and having fun along the way. And the best part about this club, purchasing the wine is completely optional. Plus, all events are recorded and you have access to the full library of recordings as a court crew member. So you can always catch up if you can't make it live. Oh, and did I mention it's virtual which means you get to do all of this from the comfort of your sofa in your PJs. No need to worry about driving in crappy traffic, finding a designated driver, or spending an arm and a leg on a taxi. Wanna give it a try without the commitment? You're in luck. Right now, I'm offering a free class pass to anybody who wants to try out the Court Crew Virtual Wine Tasting Club. With this pass, you'll be able to join a Court Crew event of your choosing. No strings attached. I don't need your credit card. I don't need you to sign up for anything. You'll be my guest. Simply head to corkandfizz.com/ free class pass to get your class pass and be one step closer to becoming a member of the best wine tasting club around, the corkcrew. I can't wait to see you there. Now, let's get back to the show. We are going to talk about a wine called Columbard. I've had very few Columbards in my life, but they are literally sunshine in a bottle, which, like, does it get any better than that for a picnic? This grape, it's planted a lot across the world, but it's primarily used for brandy production, especially in its home of Armagnac, France. But luckily for us, folks have started making wine with it. So aroma wise, you're gonna get some really these are also, like, fresh and springy kind of aromas to me. So you get green apple and honeydew and white peach, a little bit of nuttiness from almond, and then that like herbal aroma of lemongrass. Structure wise, it's literal sunshine in a bottle. I bet you have a good idea of what this is. It is light bodied, high acidity, medium alcohol, and no sweetness to it. It is a dry wine. It is gonna be most similar to a Sauvignon Blanc, or if you're familiar with a Frullano, which is from the Fruli region of Italy, which, again, a froulano is just similar to a Sauvignon Blanc. It's almost like just naming synonyms here at this point. This wine, you will find it made in South Africa, the United States, France, and Australia. I'm sure you'll find it in other places, but those were the top four that I could find. Food pairing wise, I remember when I had this wine, we had just gotten a new cookbook. I say we. I did. I made I know when we get a cookbook. I think about it as, like, me and my husband got it because, like, we are the one that are gonna eat the food, but I got the cookbook and made the food, and we ate it. But it was a fresh green bean salad. So we blanched the green beans, which was a new technique that I hadn't heard of before. It's where you, like, I think it's where you like quick boil and then you put them in the ice and then it just makes them very fresh and very crunchy. Highly recommend. So it was those blanched green beans, mozzarella pearls, blueberries, and I think maybe tomatoes, like cherry tomatoes. Anyways, it was great and it worked really well with this really fresh, bright, acidic columbard. I also think just like think anything fresh. So, like, if your salads, in terms of cheeses, this could go really well with those, like, lighter, like, mozzarella and burrata and softer cheeses where you don't want your wine to overpower it. It'll work really well. Or like goat cheese. Right? Like, think Sauvignon Blanc loves chevre goat cheese. You could also pair a columbard with it. If you can find this wine, it is a little challenging to find, but the ones I found are around 15 to $20. I mean, you might find them as a blend. So Columbard blended with Sauvignon Blanc, Still recommend trying that. You don't have to, like, avoid it because it's not 100% columbard. I still think you'll get a good vibe from it. And And serving temp on this one, cold. I think you're great to keep this on ice until you're ready to drink it. In terms of favorite bottles, again, Google Photos saves me. I remember I have a specific memory of having that green bean salad and, having this bottle. And it was this beautiful bottle. I think I got it from Crunchy Red Fruit, which is a wine subscription based here in the Seattle area, but you can get it anywhere. But I was a part of their club for a little while, and I believe it came from them. And I just it was this, like, bright sunshiny bottle. I couldn't remember, so I literally just typed Columbard in my Google Photos. I feel like this is an ad for Google Photos. It's not. I'm just very excited about how I was able to find this. And so I did accept the place that I purchased it from or that I got it from. Crunchy red fruit is sold out, and I couldn't find it online. But I'm gonna tell you anyway just so you can keep an eye out, and maybe if you see this producer in another wine of theirs, you might give it a try because it was so good. So it was the Adroit, a d r o I t, was the, like, name on the label. There's a columbar, 100% columbar. And I believe it's a label that comes from a producer called Seabold Sellers, s e a b o l d, Seabold Sellers, California, and it was around $20. So again, keep your eye out for that. You also when I did do a Google search for this wine, I did find some blends, the Sauvignon Blanc, Colombard blend from France, and I still think you should try those too. Okay. Moving on to wine number 3. This one's gonna be a little, I think, outside of some people's comfort zones, or you might be really excited that I'm including this on here. It is called Bracchetto de Acui, and this wine is often referred to as the red Moscato dei Asti. It comes from the same general region, so Piedmont, Italy. This is Northern Italy, but from Aqui, not Asti. If you ever noticed in these, you're basically saying from and then Moscato de Osti, from Osti. It's giving you a hint. It's saying, here's the grape. It is from this region. So our bracchetto is the grape, the is the region. Is the region. It is frisante, which translates to slightly sparkling just like Moscato Deiasti, again the comparison. And the most popular version of this and what I'm recommending is slightly sweet. Now, don't skip forward if you don't drink sweet wine because I still think you might enjoy this. In terms of aromas, we've got some candied strawberry, but we also have some nice citrus, some orange zest, little richer fruits, some apricot, and a little bit of cream because of that sparkling nature. Structure wise, about medium plus sweetness. So we're not going super syrupy. Again, you also have the bubbles in there, and so that makes it light to medium bodied, very low alcohol, medium acidity, and really little to no tannins. This is a red wine, but you're not gonna get any of that drying sensation. In terms of being similar, like I said, this often referred to as the red version of Muscato Dei Oste, and you could also think of it similar ish to a Lambrusco. I think Lambrusco is a lot richer, but maybe if you think of the sweeter version. But again, the sweeter version of Lambrusco is also a little more on the syrupy side, and this bracchetta is just way more fresh. Food wise, that slight sweetness makes it perfect to pair with, like, a fresh fruit salad. I think fruit and anything with, like, some sweetness to it can be so hard to pair wine with, but this braketo works so, so well. I also think it pairs wonderfully with chocolate. So if your picnic is more about dessert, this is gonna be your wine. I also think like the best pairing I've ever had with was angel food cake. I used to work at a bakery as a kid. Well, not like as a young, young kid, but when I turned I think when I turned, like, 12 or 13, I worked in my hometown's bakery just at the front ringing people up. And this bakery, they always made an angel food cake, and then they would make their own frosting for it. And the town loved it. I'm sure it was very simple. It's just like frosting and fresh strawberries. But they would put it on the homemade angel food cake, and, oh, everybody wanted one of those. It's like the the the cake for their birthday. I had this after I got older, right, when I got back home and paired it with this rocato, the acry, and it was delicious. So highly recommend. The sparkling also lends itself to lighter dishes like a chicken salad sandwich or seafood. And you can pair sweet wine with savory dishes. It actually works really well. There's no reason that you have to save the sweet wine for dessert. Cost wise, again, right around the $15 range. I believe you should serve this totally chilled. It doesn't need to be straight from the fridge, but on a day, it definitely can be. Or, like, straight from, like, the icy cooler into your glass. Like, that that is totally acceptable with this wine. Some of my favorite bottles, I couldn't find one that looked familiar enough, and Google Photos failed me on this one. I guess I didn't take a picture of any of the any of these lines. But couple that I found online that had really wonderful reviews, there's marenco, m a r e n c o, This one was $24, so he's a little higher end. And then Rinaldi, and this was about$30. Now if you can't find you could just try but just note it might not be sparkling and it could come from anywhere. So remember that tells you it's from Italy. Okay. So we've talked about what have we talked about already? We've talked about Blanca Franches. We've talked about Colombard and Now it's on to another white wine, and this is a Pique Olle. If you ever had this wine, you might be noticing a trend here. This is another high acidity light bodied white wine that is just perfect for your picnic. To me, I think it's honestly like adult lemonade. It is so good. This is perfect for when your picnic is on the beach or you're enjoying some fresh seafood. Aroma wise, we've got green apples, citrus blossom, grapefruit, lemon, thyme, and then you've got the seashells and the salinity, this like saltiness, and every wine person's favorite word, some minerality. So crushed gravel, think that fresh smell after it's just rained or the sound. The aroma is like the sound. We're mixing up senses here. Or like the smell of the rocks after a waterfall. Like when you're walking by a waterfall, when those wet rocks, that is minerality. Structure wise, like I mentioned, high acidity, light bodied, medium alcohol. This is going to be most similar to an Albarino or a Vino Verde. These are both. I mean, Vino Verde is made with Albarino. They call it Albarino in Portugal. So Albarino is primarily Spanish wine. Vinho Verde is a very light bodied, fun, fresh white wine from Portugal, which I honestly would also recommend on a picnic. These are both great picnic wines, but I thought Peak Bowl would be fun to introduce you to. This wine is primarily made in France in the Languedoc Christian region. In that region, there's actually a smaller subregion called the Peak Pool Des Pinets, and that region makes peak bowl, obviously. So it's called Peak Pool De Pinet. And then you also find it in the US. I've had some from California and from Washington. Pairing wise, like I said, seafood is wonderful, fresh, bright, but also go the opposite end, fried foods. So there's a contrasting pairing working in that situation. It could also work well with salad. I don't know. This one, I feel like it could just work with anything you put in your picnic basket. That high acidity just makes it super refreshing and pair well with just about anything. I think the only thing you wanna be careful of is not to have too intense of food. So something like a big juicy burger would probably be the only thing I would stay away from or like something along those lines because the pickle is a little lighter in flavor. Cost wise, 12 to $20, I would say. And serving temp, again, this one ice cold, take it straight from the fridge or take it straight from the cooler filled with ice. It's gonna be great. First bottle I had of this one, again, I I'm amazed with the number of memories I have of, like, some of these wines that I've tried. But I found it on the $12 and under rack at one of my favorite wine shops here in Seattle. Almost every small wine shop has a rack or a section that is, like, they're, like, $15 and under, $12 under, all of their, like, good budget wines. Definitely look for those. Going to a small wine shop doesn't mean you have to pay a lot. This one, I remember I can picture the label and it had these little fish on it, and I knew it was from that French region, the Pic Pool De Pinay, because I looked it up after I got the bottle. Of course, I I tried Google Photos. Apparently, I did not take a picture of this one. But I did do a Google search. It literally looked up like peak pool des Pinets with a lot of fish on the label, and I found it. It is the Vinerons de Florentzac Le Poisson. And so the Le Poisson is l e s p o I s s o n s. I found it on one.com and it was only $14. So give that a try if you wanna give it a try. And then some other Peak Pools that I've had are both from the US. So I had one from Gramercy Sellers, and I believe they just came out with their 2023 vintage. Hopefully, by the time this airs, they will still have some. They usually sell out, but that's a great one from Walla Walla. It's around $22. And then I also had one from Marjoram. This is a winery down in Santa Barbara, California. They make a really lovely white Rhone blend and Peak Pool is often used in it. And sometimes they make a single vintage of the Peak Pool. And I did get to try one, but it looks like they're sold out. So keep an eye out for future vintages of that Peak Pool from Marjoram. Alright. We have made it to wine number 5, and this is the one where I said I get a little boujee and I step outside of that price range. I'm gonna say champagne is a perfect spring picnic pairing. And listen, I think we're all pretty familiar with this one. If you wanna learn more champagne, this is one of your first episodes you're listening to here. So glad you're here. Go check out. I have a sparkling wine 101 episode, and I also mentioned champagne in the French wine 101 episode as well so you can learn a little bit more. So I'm not gonna go into the details on this one here, but I will tell you a little bit more. There's just something about having a chill, relaxed picnic and then bringing along a bottle of champagne, just make it feel boujee and fancy and even like a celebration. Even if you're celebrating, hey, we made it through the week. Like, why not pull that champagne out? Or we're celebrating the sunshine today. That is a perfect reason to pull out a bottle of champagne. Plus, it pairs so well with food. I mean, cheese and charcuterie, champagne. Fried chicken, champagne. Fresh fruit, champagne. Tea sandwiches or breakfast pastries, champagne. The list goes on and on. And you can do this with other sparkling wines if you don't wanna spend, you know, the 30, $35 that a champagne costs. You could easily do that with Cava, Cremont, or Prosecco. There's just something to me about the idea of champagne on a picnic, like, make it feel fancy. We can do it just as well, and you could feel just as fancy doing it with a $10 bottle of Cava, you know,$15 bottle of Cremont. It's just the vibe that you bring. And, of course, serving temperature on this, definitely chilled. You want that bottle in the fridge for a while, take it straight from there, or have it on ice when you are out on the picnic. And in terms of favorite bottle, it's all of them. I don't think I've had a champagne that I don't like. It's just it's it's a fan favorite and is a top of the wine food chain for a reason. It is always absolutely wonderful. Alright. So just as a review, the 5 wines that I recommend for your next spring picnic are for red wines, a or a Remember that bracchetto is going to be a little more sweet. For white wines, we have a colombard or a pique pool, and sparkling, gonna talk about champagne. Now you just gotta let me know which one of these are you going to try. And if you do go on a picnic and bring one of these wines, please take a picture and send it to me. You can tag me on Instagram at corkandfizz. Send me a message or even email me, haley@corkandfizz.com. I would love to see it. And let me know what you think. Did it work? Did you like it? Alright. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine Podcast. If you loved it as much as I did, would so appreciate if you could take a quick second, rate it, leave a review, and hey, if you know somebody who loves spring picnics and would need some wine recommendations, send this podcast their way. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. I have new episodes coming out every Wednesday. In next week's episode, I'll be answering the top ten questions I get during my private wine tastings. I always have so much fun answering these questions for you during the tastings, but I had a feeling, hey, I felt that these come up a lot during private tastings. I bet other people have these questions as well. So I'll throw them on the podcast. Thanks again for listening. And as a thank you, I'd like to share my free shopping guide, 15 wines under $15. Simply head to my website, corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and join the mailing list. 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