The summer weather has started to creep into Florida, after a long three weeks of brutal winter with temperatures plummeting into the 50s. As we transition from shoes to flip flops and shorts to bathing suits, we also transition our drinking habits. We set aside the big bold reds and start to venture into the lighter, crisper wines. Now I am not saying we don’t drink any big reds, because around my house we still pop open some monster Cabernets with dinner by the pool. We all just tend to gravitate to nice light wines to go with our warm spring afternoons.

I have selected two regions to highlight their great warm weather sippers, Provence in France and Marlborough in New Zealand. The region of Provence has some of the most highly acclaimed and affordable rosés. Provence is the largest wine region that specializes in rosés worldwide--with the American consumer continuing to crave them, sales were up 40% in 2013. Two of our feature favorites are the Domaine De Paris which, at $10.99, is an amazing deal for a wonderful wine. The second wine is the Château Montaud which, at $12.19, is still a great bargain. Both wines are well crafted, with flavors of honeysuckle and red cherry with a creamy lush finish.

The second region is Marlborough in New Zealand, which is known as the top producer of Sauvignon Blanc in the world; it has the ideal climate for the grape to grow. The two wines that we are featuring for the category are Silver Beach and Jules Taylor. Silver beach is known by some as the ruby red wine because it packs a powerful grapefruit punch. At only $10.99, it is a tremendous value. The second wine is Jules Taylor Sauvignon Blanc, this vineyard was founded by the former winemaker from Kim Crawford. However, their wines are made in a much more handcrafted way. The wine is produced in small batches of high quality juice, and at $14.99 a bottle you are getting a great bargain.

Mike Love, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits wine consultant

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinemikel