5 Refreshingly Cheap White Wines

White wines make great pairings with light summer dishes -- fresh produce, grilled fish and more. Our friend from Snooth.com wine forums recommends five of his favorite whites that are light on the palate and your wallet.
By: Healthy Eats

Related To:

White Wine

Big red wines are comforting against winter's chill, but they just don’t work as well when summer’s heat starts taking hold. Reds' higher serving temperatures and often higher alcohol content and tannins can clash with summer’s lighter foods. This is where a good white wine comes in.

Here are five summer whites that are all easy to enjoy and pair well with the warm-weather dishes I love -- fresh produce, lighter grilled fishes and meats. They’re easy on the wallet, too! --Gregory Dal Piaz, Snooth.com

South African Sauvignon Blancs offer a good balance between the lean, mineral styles popular in France and their more intensely fruity and chili-laced cousins. Sure, the winery name is complicated, but this wine has a pure, refreshing fruit flavor.

Price: $10

Suggested food pairings: lighter fish dishes (try it with sushi!), pasta and veggies, avocados

In summer, unoaked Chardonnays give buttery flavor without the richness that might be too heavy for hotter days. South America is becoming a great source of budget-friendly whites, and the unwooded Chardonnay from Chile’s Echeverria vineyards is no exception. The bottle bursts with a fine blend of crisp, subtle fruit tones.

Price: $10

Suggested food pairings: richer fish dishes, pork, fruity olive oils (drizzled over grilled meats and veggies)

This wine, one of my long-time favorite domestic whites, is on the lighter side and sports pineapple and passion fruit flavors. Its modest alcohol levels won’t leave you feeling dizzy in the summer heat either! Enjoy it on its own or as the start to a pitcher of white sangria.

Price tag: $10

Suggested food pairings: spicy grilled chicken or fish, curries

Riesling grapes produce a surprisingly broad range of wines, from bone-dry Trockens to decadently sweet Eiswein. The flavors in this Clean Slate version add just a touch of sweetness and accentuate the contrast between its light mineral tones and rich lime and peach fruits.

Price tag: $9

Suggested food pairings: spicy dishes (try it with your favorite Thai takeout), salsa, salads that combine fruits and chiles

I couldn’t imagine going a whole summer without a bubbly Prosecco! These are soft, easy wines meant for celebrating life, and the Col Vetoraz, with its drier floral style, is one of my favorites. Around my house, Prosecco is a standard brunch wine as well as a versatile cocktail-hour choice. Its relatively low alcohol content – usually around 11 percent – won’t dull the senses either.

Price tag: $18

Suggested food pairings: summer salads, heirloom tomatoes, brunch

Wine Glossary:

Tannin – Bitter or astringent flavor from the grape skins, seeds and stems

Unwooded/Unoaked – Wine that is not fermented in a wooden (usually oak) barrel, which gives it a nutty flavor

Mineral - Earthy or smoky scents and flavors

Acidity - Tart, sometimes sour, flavor that varies in strength depending on the type of grape used

Gregory Dal Piaz, community manager at Snooth.com, has worked in the food and wine world for more than two decades. Check out the Snooth.com forums to read his reviews, wine musings and join the discussion.

Next Up

5 Essential Glasses Every Serious Wine Drinker Should Own, According to a Sommelier

Never let the wrong glass ruin a delicious bottle of wine again.

6 Best Wine Openers and Preservers of 2024, Tested and Reviewed

We tested nearly two dozen wine openers to find the best ones for every kind of wine drinker.

Your Halloween Party Needs This Frankenstein Wine Keg

Our scary craft dresses up any ol' box wine for the occasion.

Thanksgiving Wines Paired With Your Menu Style

Every year, we get questions on how to pair wine with Thanksgiving dinner; it’s a nice dinner you’ve gone to great lengths to prepare, and you want to drink something nice with it. This is both a hard question to answer and an easy one, because turkey itself is a blank canvas — you can pair it with pretty much every wine in the world and it’ll work pretty well — so it’s never so much about the turkey as it is about the seasonings and sides. The problem here is actually that there’s too much choice.

What's the Best Type of White Wine for Cooking?

Does the type of white wine you choose really matter? Food Network’s resident sommelier weighs in.

What Is Dry January and Is It Really Worth the Hype?

Sobering up for a month could have long-term benefits.

What Is Absinthe?

The people want to know: will you have hallucinations if you drink absinthe?

Bourbon vs. Whiskey: What’s the Difference?

All bourbons are whiskeys but not all whiskeys are bourbon.