In the summer months, your wardrobe isn’t the only thing that needs to lighten up and get with the season. Your wine rack also needs to start getting into the summer mode. One way to bring a taste of the season into your regular wine collection is to turn to Portugal’s stunning summer wines, the famed.

Vinho Verde is not actually green, as the name might imply. Instead, it is a light white wine with a touch of effervescence, though it never crosses over into sparkling wine territory. The light, floating texture of the wine shouldn’t fool you either, as Vinho Verde packs a punch with its 9 – 11% alcohol content.

It is bottled from the current year’s grape crop and is best consumed within the first year, making it ideal as a drink-now summer wine. The low price points for bottles also make it a summer winner, as you can find almost every variety of Vinho Verde from less than $20, and in many cases less than $10 per bottle.

To find Vinho Verde, you can ask for it by name at the local wine store. Most retailers have a bottle or two in stock that they sell to “in the know” consumers. If you can’t find it at your local store, you can also order Vinho Verde online by looking for the winning families of Portuguese wines.

Some of the top names to look for in Vinho Verde for 2010 include Quinta de Gamariz, Adega, Alvarinho, and Quinta da Raza. These are wine houses that swept the 2010 Best of Vinho Verde awards. You can also look for the wines by region –if you aren’t fixated on prize winners– by searching for vintages from the Minho region of Portugal, which is the heart of Vinho Verde country.

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