7 Summer White Wines

This is the time for outdoor lunches — at fine restaurants downtown, on your own patio, or a picnic in the park. And you can't have an outdoor lunch without a bottle of chilled white wine.

Here are seven for your consideration.

• CK Mondavi California Pinot Grigio 2014 ($6). A little on the soft and sweet side, but it nevertheless has nice, green, tart apple flavors with good acidity at the edges — fine for everyday drinking.
• CVNE "Monopole" Rioja Blanco 2014 ($13). Produced from Rioja's viura grape, it has fresh apple flavors, but mellow, not tart, ones — a wine for someone who prefers fruitiness.
• Stinson Monticello Sauvignon Blanc 2014 ($24). The wines just keep get better each vintage from this Virginia producer. The wine isn't complex, but it is well made, featuring creamy green fruits, mainly kiwi with a hint of lime.
• Franciscan "Equilibrium" Napa Valley White Wine 2014 ($20). Just a lovely blend of sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, and muscat (a combo we should see more of), the wine is lightly sweet and lightly fruity with flavors of strawberries and raspberries — like a pastry cream with an edginess.
• Tom Gore California Chardonnay 2013 ($14). A fairly middle-of-the-road chard with mellow apples and soft kiwi flavors.
• Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Chardonnay 2013 ($16). Very nice and smooth — a fine luncheon wine — with flavors of apples, a little cream, and some baking spices.
• nman Family Russian River Chardonnay 2013 ($35). A little light in the middle, it has lots of good flavors — apples, creamy but tart yogurt, and loads of clean metallic minerality.