Gretchen Roberts has passed the introductory course at the Court of Master Sommeliers and is studying for her sommelier certification this fall.

Warm weather is made for whites, rosés and beer to help quench the undying thirst that accompanies the heat. But red wine lovers need not despair: plenty of light reds like Barbera, Beaujolais and Pinot Noir are good summer sippers, too.

Pinot is often relegated to autumnal pairings of mushrooms and duck, but it's also delicious in summer with grilled veggies (think: eggplant with yogurt sauce) and Indian takeout when it's too hot to cook.

Five summery Pinot recommendations after the jump.

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• One would think farmers' markets were all about featuring straight-from-the-farm foods. But these days they're also rife with events, including a couple with certain Top Chefs.
• Hopper's Wines & Spirits prepares for a big Burgundy tasting: Wines from all the villages in the Cote d'Or.
• Antoines, a 169-year-old French Quarter restaurant, has a new addition, The Hermes Bar.
• Dietician Molly Kimball offers a list of ways to make pizza a less hip-widening food experience, including thinner crust, extra sauce and more veggies.

On paper New York looks like a good growing region for Pinot Noir: Its climate and soil type is similar to Burgundy, where the world's best Pinot Noirs are made.

But, as the Cornell study notes, Pinot Noir is a fickle grape -- difficult to grow and especially difficult to grow well. New York winemakers should only get into Pinot Noir if they're committed to producing wines of quality.

Happily enough, some of them seem to be.

One caveat: Fans of big, ripe heavily extracted Pinots with sweet cherry cola flavors and plenty of body and alcohol won't like Pinots from the Finger Lakes, a region upstate.The cool-climate region is similar to Burgundy in that it struggles to produce grapes of optimum ripeness in some years. Vinos of these vintages generally have a low concentration, lower alcohol (12-13 percent rather than upwards of 14 percent), a subtle bouquet and a taste suited to a more sensitive palate. We found two we love.

Read more New York Pinot Noir - Wine of the Week after the jump.

The weather has been unseasonably warm this month in my neck of the woods, but it's finally starting to cool off. I'm ready to go apple picking and bite into fresh, crisp, tangy apples. I'm making pumpkin soup and roasted squash. I'm dreaming about baked pears stuffed with blue cheese and walnuts and drizzled with Port. And I'm finishing up my light summer Roses and Albarinos and Vinho Verdes and turning to fuller-bodied white wines and light reds that perfectly complement fall foods.

A younger exposure to wine is likely to foster an increase in appreciation of the beverage, so consumers will be looking not only for more wines, but for better wines. The problem is that you have to start somewhere and it can be difficult to know what you're getting by looking at the bottle. One strategy is to only take recommendations from friends and gradually branch out from there. Another is to extensively research each wine before you buy it, consulting the experts and the internet. If you are at the store and want to buy a bottle at that moment, however, you might face an impressive selection without a clue as to what to buy. Which bottle will you reach for?

An article in the New York Times Magazine reported that the sales of a specific sort of wine have reached over $600 million annually. It’s not burgundy, chardonnay or merlot - not specifically, anyway -  that’s selling, but it just might be the wine that you reach for when confronted with too many same-looking options: wines with animals on their labels.

It might seem like a label design would be an unreliable way to select a wine, but a great logo can help cement a good reputation in the mind of the buyer. And things besides wine are selected on their looks every day: book covers, clothing and potential dates. Why should wines stick to plain labels with scripted fonts when a bold design will jump out and grab a consumer's attention? My only question is why an animal label might attract a buyer more than a flashy, non-animal label, all other things being equal.