12 delightful and approachable wines to toast to spring 2023

Finally, with the arrival of spring, we can say goodbye to stews, winter binges, heavy, tannic wines, roasted chestnuts, and 1958 Cognac balloons to sip in front of the crackling fireplace while munching on a slice of Niko Romito’s 150 euro panettone.

Well, yes, I must admit that, in this period of rebirth, I feel more strongly the call of glu glu wines, of salty and empty grape juices, of wines that have that radioactive pomegranate color, of the thinnest oranges that whip you, but above all of the refermented in the bottle made with a light hand and peasant elegance.

We don’t need to drink super fancy, sidereal Champagne; I’ll settle for a lovely pet nat from Judith Beck or Angol d’Amig . Nothing difficult, but from which it is tremendously difficult to detach once the bottle has been uncorked.

And then let’s be clear: the wine should complement the ingredients on the table during this time of year, not the other way around. The asparagus, zucchini, artichoes, peas, and broad beans have arrived!

The cuisine is a partner in this vinous journey, inviting you to a shift in flavor toward greenery, crunchiness, and a yearning for lightness.

And so we offer you a carefree list of spring wines. Call them glu glu wines, wine to be uncorked with a salami sandwich after you have climbed the Gran Sasso or to take to the sea for a picnic.

There are no designer bottles from large cellars from the famous winemaker; you don’t deserve this insult from a furious chip. No, we offer convivial wines that are easy to approach and high-performance wines that have charisma.

1. Le Boccette 2020 Quarticello

Le Boccette di Quarticello is a fresh and inviting sparkling wine based on Spergola that envelops you with a splendid and joyful freshness. It is never trivial; it never misses a beat; it doesn’t give in to stylization; but it flows on a track of rigor and incredible pleasantness. Clean scents that draw a simple but irresistible rural fresco 13 euros is an attractive price.

2. En Vadrouille Blanc 2021, Raisin a Plume

An overwhelming, juicy white wine, furious in its search for purity and citrus sumptuousness. A 100% Semillon from the Loire, as few have the courage to do. Not glitzy and mature, but distinct and rocky, vinified in glass blocks to enhance the meaty nature of this lysergic French grape variety. 22 euros, an excellent price.

3. Vespri Sparkling White Wine, Il Ceo Winery

A small goldsmith’s masterpiece, this wine is joyful and savory, always clean and flowing, never pedantic, and always ready to amaze you with an incredible naturalness of drinkability. Full and dual taste with acidity and sumptuousness that are entangled in a frenzied embrace. Wine produced with a classic Breganze vine, the legendary Vespaiola, once the ruler of these hills, is unfortunately rarely treated today. 70-year-old vines that haahsmalloots in volcanic soils, management as natural as possible, aging in old wood, and then refermentation in the bottle triggered by must Small masterpiece of immediacy and pleasantness.

4. Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore 2018 Balt Adalia

Sinuosity, elegance, a fine and vertical line, aromatic volume, and lightness of body are the main characteristics of this extraordinary wine. Not because it is shockingly complex, but for just the opposite reason. It has all the fleshiness of Amarone, but without the tannins, extraction, or alcoholic heaviness. Everything is drawn, of course, with a delicate hand; no depth is reached, but the juice is engaging and manages to keep you glued to the bottle until the last drop.

5. Gwin Evan 2021

Is there a more spring-like vine than Melon de Bourgogne? No, if you want a bottle to enanche a picnic, an evening with friends, or any appetizer, bet on this amazing French wine. In this case, you will find lots of pulp, endless juiciness, honey, and ringing hints of citrus and melon that blend in a symphony of marine flavors. Perfect for oysters and seafood, but also to be uncorked by the sea with a take-away mixed fry. 21 euros—a very tempting price.

6. Aura 2020, Valdisole

All the wines of the Valdisole Piedmontese winery are excellent spring bottles, and you can drink them on any occasion thanks to their innate alcoholic lightness, their amazing elegance, and the ease with which they flow on the palate. This does not mean that Aura 2020 is easy and predictable. Indeed, quite the opposite! The savory hardness is balanced by the fleshiness and the persuasive, spicy, and enveloping hints of the fruit. Yet everything is in perfect balance. The layers of flavor chase each other, prick each other, and push each other, creating a fresco of rare beauty. Moscato in purity, 38 mg/L of sulfite, maceration for months in steel, and stellar drinkability. An icon wine of the natural rebirth of Piedmont that undermines all prejudices about white Moscato, or at least in its industrial and pedestrian Italiot interpretation. 21 euros: if it were a French wine, it would cost 50% more.

7. Light Red Wine 2022, Pranzegg Weingut

Another wide-ranging rosé with an easy approach Fresh and rocky, never predictable, always ready to shoot with a salty lunge It has volume and compactness, excellent aromatic development, and chewable thickness. A blend of Schiava, Lagrein, and Merlot is beautifully packaged by a winemaker who is establishing himself as a rising star in South Tyrol. 16 euros, practically given away: to be combined with grilled arrosticini, spaghetti with seafood, and a ham sandwich, this is a wine that brings joy and lightheartedness.

8. Nebbiolo Colline Novaresi 2020 Le Piane

A salty and citrusy Nebbiolo that smells of earth and tea. Nothing is difficult, but the innate elegance of Nebbiolo manages to unleash a crazy charm, hanks to perfumes designed with gentleness and incredible traits. Tomato and watermelon, light body, ephebic tannins, excellentrhythm, and great drinkability Enough, that’s all; you don’t need anything else to be happy. 18–19 euros: galvanizing price.

9. Furau sparkling white, Sa Defensa

Massive cellar, to be visited to discover the true face of Sardinian wine. Family management, ancient vines, a respectful and natural approach, great professionalism, and the desire not to give in to fashions This bottle-fermented white is a hymn to joy: sun and broom, salt and resin, citrus fruit, endless vivacity, elegance and rigor, savory depth, and exciting development. A small peasant wine that reminds us that there is not only Vermentino as a white wine in Sardinia. 21 euros: to be bought on pallets.

10. Sandrigo, Denis Montanar

A white icon of the peasant rebirth of Friulian wine Yellow and full of explosiveness and grit, this blend of white grapes is a bomb of intensity and character. It exudes charisma, flowers, and salt with every sip. Played with an exaggerated dynamism, always poised between sumptuousness and smoothness, it does not let itself be tamed or put into easy categories. Spontaneous fermentation, vinification in steel, eight months of rest on the lees, pulp, and rhythm. Splendid wine, Triple A, with a contagious radiance. Minimal price: not even 20 euros.

11. Red wine, Santa Caterina

Andrea Kihlgren’s wines are a certainty, a pure and simple expression of the Sarzana terroir. Don’t expect so much extract and stylization, but naturalness of sip and fullness of taste. This mostly Merlot blend was vinified in steel with spontaneous fermentation and then aged in tonneaux. Take it to every barbecue and every outing and serve it, even slightly chilled, and its subtle grace and the scents of the Mediterranean scrub will ensure you great success.

12. SP68 Red 2021, Arianna Occhipinti

Putting an Arianna Occhipinti wine on a spring wine list is an exercise in style, a necessary gesture that might seem obvious, but the value of this immense winemaker deserves much more. His wines should be featured on every wine table and every wine list, and every person with taste buds shoul taste these exemplary wines. And this waltz of Frappato and Nero d’Avola is simply extraordinary. Fresh, salty, and resinous like a pine scrub, full of flowers and grit but also with warm and spicy flavors. The finish is balsamic and mentholated. Fabulous price: 17 euros maximum.