“I think everyone in the world should drink more sparkling wine than they already do,” the bartender announced over the din of a Tuesday night crowd at the wine bar.  It was a view that I was beginning to agree with after a week of heat-wave weather that had sent me seeking wines that refresh - and that lend themselves to challenging food pairings.

My friend had invited me to dinner and the menu was built around a salad of arugula, feta and watermelon.  I was to bring the wine and my first thought was a dry rosé, as I thought that would go with anything.  Suspecting the three of us around the table would probably drink more than one bottle I decided this was a chance to add some fizz.  Like Tuesday’s bartender, many wine writers bemoan the relegating of sparkling wine to weddings, Valentine’s Day dinners and the holiday season.  Maybe they had a point.

The watermelon salad was a casual weeknight meal consumed in a warm garden as the sun set.    I set my sights on either a Cava, the sparkling wine of Spain, or an Italian Prosecco.  Good ones are widely available and neither need be expensive.  The savory flavors of the cheese and peppery greens suggested a wine with crisp acidity.  Both could provide that.  But it was the sweetness of the watermelon that persuaded me to choose the slightly sweeter Prosecco.

As we ate we alternated between the sparkler and the dry rosé.  Both pairings were delicious and each wine proved to be as refreshing and light as the food.  The biggest discovery was how the two wines affected the flavor of the food itself.  Each formed a bond: the Prosecco highlighting the texture and juiciness of the watermelon, the rosé deepening the savory elements on the plate.

Fast forward a few days and the Everson Royce wine shop and bar in Pasadena was featuring a flight of three sparklers at their weekly Tuesday night tasting.  Besides being a refreshing choice for a sweltering night, the additional motivation was to pair the fizz with handmade omelettes being expertly prepared bar-side.

The first two wines were grown in the foothills of the Pyrenees in Limoux, France, located at the western edge of the southern appellation known as the Languedoc-Roussillon.  Unlike most of that area, whose warm-climate grapes are influenced by the Mediterranean, the vineyards of Limoux are high enough to be influenced by the cool Atlantic ocean.  So cooler climate Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc were the varietals used for these two wines and one of them included a splash of some still Pinot Noir to create a sparkling rosé.  Both were made using the méthode traditionnelle of the Champagne region along with that appellation's principal grapes.  They lacked the yeasty depth of good Champagne, but they certainly out-performed their $15 price point.

The flight’s third wine was completely different, made from biodynamically grown Malvasia in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.  Tank fermented, the wine was refreshing and aromatic with very subtle carbonation.  In fact I could have been drinking a still wine by the end of the sample glass.

And so I bubbled my way through the summer’s first heat wave.  As the warm weather continues I want to have a few interesting sparklers at the ready to enjoy with the fresh dishes we most want to eat at this time of year.  Dry or off-dry and usually lower in alcohol, sparklers are friendly with many foods because of their mouth-watering acidity and the carbonation itself.  And there is a world of interesting wine adventures out there that will not break the bank - so why wait for a holiday?

We should all drink more sparkling wine than we already do!

Wines mentioned (all are available for between $12 and $21):

• Stolpman Estate Grown Rosé 2016 (Ballard Canyon)
• LaMarca Prosecco NV (Italy)
• Collin Brut Cuveee Rosé NV (Limoux, France)
• J. Laurens Brut NV (Limoux, France)
• La Collina Lunaris Secco NV (Emilia Romagna, Italy)