Imagine you’ve just wrapped up harvest at Corte Gardoni, along the shores of Lake Garda, or at Catherine and Pierre Breton, right above the Loire River. Few experiences in your life have been as physically challenging as the past couple of weeks, and as you watch the last of the buckets brimming with pristine grapes start their journey to becoming beautiful wines, you begin to feel thirsty. To commemorate this moment, you don’t want anything too heavy, high in alcohol, or tannic. What you crave, rather, is a glass of something festive and fresh. It doesn’t matter if it’s sparkling, white, rosé, or red as long as it’s lively and fills you with the energy to celebrate and feast around the table with your fellow harvesters.
     Of course, les vendanges aren’t the only occasions when a wine’s exuberance is its most important quality. Weddings, barbecues, family reunions, and other gatherings held under the sun and spread out across many hours call for wines that, above all, match their joyousness. Here are twelve bottles that rank among our most exuberant selections.