October Weather And The Wines To Drink With Them

This weekend the calendar turns from September to October. It’s a transition that, for many readers and wine lovers, also signals a change from white or rosé wine to reds, as “October weather” with its gusts of wind and chillier temperatures takes hold.

What wines go with October weather?

There’s no hard-and-fast rule in response to that question, and there’s a long list of variables that will influence your personal decision. Where you live, for example, and whether October temperatures mean 50 degrees or 80. How much you truly enjoy white wines and whether you’re in any particular rush to put them away for the season. Whether you’ve gotten so attached to rosé wine that you’d like to test the theory that rosés do in fact stand up to cooler temperatures and heartier dishes. Or maybe red wines just aren’t your thing, full stop.

In every case, the page turn of a calendar is also an opportunity for wine enthusiasts to tune in, to take the outside and the internal temperature, and to assess what wine selections catch their attention right now. Here are a few other themes to consider as you browse wine lists, the shelves of your favorite shop, or even your own inventory this weekend.

Red Wines that Are Best Served Chilled

Chilled red wines are, for me, a style that fits right into the “shoulder season” of summer into fall. They’re red wines, yes, and also suited more to end-of-day drinks on the porch than in front of the fireplace. Wines from gamay grapes are a very good bet here, particularly from Beaujolais; I’m referring not to Beaujolais Nouveau but to Cru Beaujolais, which originate in any of the region’s ten most highly-regarded wine growing regions such as Chiroubles, Fleurie and Morgon.

Gamay’s popularity has gained traction in wine growing regions around the world, including the Willamette Valley in Oregon and the Niagara Peninsula in Canada. Those options, though less widely available, are worth asking for and seeking out.

ABC: Anything But Chardonnay, Revisited

The ABC lingo, meaning Anything But Chardonnay, was a backlash against the overly oaked and synthetic expressions of this historic and classic grape. By now we have mainly come to a compromise: certainly there are big, buttery, higher-alcohol examples on the market, and there are “naked chardonnays” on the market as well without any oak treatment or barrel aging at all, and there are options in between where the character of the grape (as opposed to its winemaking techniques) are on display along with thoughtful and moderate oak treatment. Italy’s Alto Adige is a favorite source for me for those wines in the middle ground, that strike the right note and the right balance.

Expand the Boundaries

For some wine enthusiasts the seasonal transition to fall is an opportunity to experiment and expand the boundaries of the drinks (and the wines) they typically enjoy. For me, that means refreshing my exposure to brown spirits and liqueurs like Amaretto as a nightcap, Madeira for after-dinner or to pair with a hearty vegetable dish seasoned with autumn spices, and aged cognac for a special occasion or celebration.

Fall is also the time when I find myself newly curious (again, as though it were an annual tradition) about sweet dessert wines like Sauternes, German Beerenauslese rieslings or ice wines from the northeastern US and Canada. Like the first theme discussed above, these wines are typically served chilled, making them an ideal “October weather” choice before we find ourselves in the depths of icy winter.