Finding summer fun in a bottle — or a can

Sometimes wines just want to have fun. And what better time than early summer when farm ers’ market stands overflow with the most beautiful fruit and vegeta bles?

Strawberries, fresh corn, eggplant, rhubarb, basil, tomatoes, spring shallots, garlic scapes — I can’t help filling my bags with these reds, yellows, greens, and purples. Fortunately I have a good appetite, especially in anticipation of some of my favorite summer dishes — like farfalle with corn and basil sauce.

Our first corn arrived before the tomatoes did, so I added a few sun-dried tomatoes to the basil and scallion greens in the fresh corn sauce. The result was a colorful, tasty dinner that practically begged for a colorful, light, and fresh rosé, and the one I picked had the added perk of a smattering of bubbles. In other word, great fun.

Amy at The Pip had just gotten in this 2022 Sol

Real Vinho Verde Rosé. Its deep pink caught my eye, and Amy was an enthusiastic advocate. The wine brought not only color but the summer flavors of strawberry and rhubarb (and did I detect the faintest note of basil?) to the meal. A blend of two native Portuguese grapes, touriga nacional and espadeiro, it’s a project of well-known winemaker Carlos Teixera, who has, since the early 2000s, overseen the transition of his family vineyards from producing bulk local wines to estate bottlings. He makes, said one critic, “textbook Vinho Verde at an unimpeachable level of quality.” Or as Amy described this bottle, “not serious but still structured and layered.” In other words, great fun. I immediately went back for another bottle ($15).

The Vinho Verde region always offers affordable, food-friendly, unpretentious wines. Even the $10 ones like Raza and Casal Garcia are easy-going and eminently quaffable; Sol Real goes a step beyond. Whatever the price point, you’ll be happy having many bottles of VV in your wine rack for the coming heat, especially since they tend to be among the lowest alcohol wines—the Sol Real clocks in at 10.5%.

And they’re perfect for easy summer fare like big salads, nachos, BLTs, and simple pastas with summer veg.

Fun summer wines don’t have to be white or pink. At The Pip you can find a wonderfully fun red just perfect — with an hour’s chill — for a warm evening. Also a new arrival, it’s called, whimsically, Raisins Gaulois ($22) and has an equally whimsical label.

I first tried this wine over a decade ago (a lot cheaper then, of course).

One summer evening R. and I dined on a lovely patio in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley and chose this bottle to accompany a nicely blistered pizza. I might have overlooked the silly name and label if I hadn’t noticed the importer, Kermit Lynch, which pretty much guaranteed its quality. I’ve had it several times since — whenever I see it on a wine shelf — so I was delighted when The Pip brought in this new vintage. I approached it warily because a couple of vintages hadn’t managed to

Local students earn academic kudos

Enterprise staff

Charlotte Rosendale of Woodland was named to the University of Alabama President’s List for fall semester 2022. A total of 12,791 students enrolled during Fall Semester 2022 at The University of Alabama were named to the dean’s list with an academic record of 3.5 (or above) or the president’s list with an academic record of 4.0 (all A’s). These driven students are making waves across UA’s more than 70 undergraduate programs and 12 colleges and schools. The UA dean’s and president’s lists recognize

Name Droppers

full-time undergraduate students. The lists do not apply to graduate students or undergraduate students who take less than a full course load. For more information visit news.ua.edu.

The University of Mississippi announced students named to the Spring 2023 Honor Roll lists, including Dean’s Honor Roll. The following local students made the list: Andrew Dettling of El live up to my first-time memory (enhanced no doubt by the idyllic setting), but as soon as I tasted the 2022, I was in love again.

Macero, majoring in management, and Jenna Price of Woodland, majoring in criminal justice.

The Dean’s Honor Roll is reserved for students who earn a semester GPA of 3.50-3.74. In order to be eligible for honor roll designation, a student must have completed at least 12 graded hours for the semester and may not be on academic probation during the semester.

— Do you know of someone who has won an award or accomplished something noteworthy? Email it to newsroom@davisenterprise.net.

That first bottle was made by Marcel Lapierre, a famous champion of “nothing added, nothing taken away” organic wine-making. Now his children Mathieu and Camille are carrying on the tradition. The estate is well-known for its Morgons, but the grapes for this “jolly, carefree” bottle are too young to merit the Morgon designation, so looking at the bottle you’d never know it’s 100% gamay from one of the most prestigious areas in France.

In honor of the ambiance of that SF patio meal, I served this recent bottle with a Friday-night pizza — topped with tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, grated fresh fennel, garlic scapes, and young spinach leaves. I would happily drink this juicy, tart, lively red with every single one of our summer pizzas. I might even use it as an excuse to expand our pizza-eating to Wednesday night when I could take a break from cooking and fetch a pie from Upper Crust (to my mind the best pizza in Davis, only available on Wednesdays).

Wine might have even more fun living its life in a colorful, whimsical can — like Xarmant Txakoli.

Made with several indigenous Basque grapes (honduarrabi zuri, gros manseng, petit manseng, and petit corbu), this light, stony, citrusy wine has a touch of summer stone fruit and a hint of sea salt.

Unsurprisingly, “xarmant” means “charming,” while “txakoli” is the happy light spritzzy white that the Basque like to share with friends and family. And this little can pours out just such charm and joy. The 250 ml. cans are perfect for picnic-going and other informal occasions, but the wine itself is, unlike most canned wine, of high quality and from sustainably farmed estate vineyards — on Spain’s rugged northern coast. I once read a suggestion (only half facetious) that if you’re faced with shelvesful of unfamiliar wines, you should just look from one with an “x” in its name. Xarmant-txakoli has two. Draw your own conclusion.

You can pick up a can or more ($8.50 each) of this fun-loving white at Wines in Tandem (D St. between The Pence Gallery and The Mustard Seed). The lightweight can is eminently recyclable. Even better, upcycle it for use as a charming pencil-holder or to enclose a small gift for a recent graduate or otherwise celebrating friend. If you go on a Friday or Saturday, you can take advantage of the best wine-tasting deal in town. Just $15 for several small production gems, handpicked by owner Ryan Crosbie. ($5 off that fee for each bottle purchased.) Fun guaranteed. Happy Solstice!

— Reach Susana Leonardi at vinosusana@ gmail.com. Comment on

By Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

Stephan Pastis

By Charles M. Schulz

E-Bikes on ‘Timeout Radio’

There are millions of e-bikes on our roads. These are bicycles with an electric motor that you can activate to help with pedaling. On the latest episode of “Timeout Radio,” host Rohan Baxi talks to Susan Handy, a UC Davis professor and director of the National Center for Sustainable Transportation, who will talk about the environmental policy challenges that the road to sustainable transportation faces in the U.S.

Hear about how e-bikes influence travel and how city planners can get people to drive less and use more e-bikes. In this episode’s travel segment, listeners will learn about Amsterdam, a city built on clay and supported by 11 million wooden poles. This Dutch city is home to 1.2 million bikes, 320 miles of bicycle lanes, 165 canals, a cat shelter on a houseboat, and stroopwafels.

“Timeout Radio” is a radio show and podcast based in Davis for youth.

It airs on KDRT 95.7

FM from 5:30 to 6 p.m. Tuesdays and 8 to 8:30 a.m. Saturdays. All episodes are archived at https://kdrt.org/program/timeout-radio.

You can follow Timeout Radio on Instagram @ timeout.radio and Facebook @TimeoutRadio.

STEAC gives away books

Marguerite Mont- gomery Elementary School students got an unexpected surprise last week — they got to pick out 10 books to take home for summer reading. The Short Term Emergency Aid Committee’s new Book Giveaway for Low-Income

Children dispersed over 1,400 books to 108 children whose families may not have the resources to purchase extra reading material.

All 18 classroom libraries were also enhanced with additional books. Students were thrilled to receive the books with one fourth grade boy exclaiming, “I’m so excited to read.” MME school librarian Nora Brazil noted how grateful she was “getting books to our students who need them most.”