And trust me, I taste wines for a living. Food & Wine / Getty Images Sure, you can eat shellfish any time of year. But there’s something innately summery about seafood — fried shrimp, lobster rolls, cracked crab (bring on the Old Bay), raw oysters on ice, mussels steamed with white wine and garlic, on it goes.

There’s a tired old adage about not eating oysters in months that don’t end in “r” (eg. May through August), and growing up in Houston where the Gulf Coast waters were bathtub temperature, I get that. But as a transplant to the Northeast, and to Maine for the summer months, where the Atlantic remains frigid year round, who cares? I eat oysters with aplomb.

Kumamotos from the Pacific northwest? The Pacific will numb your toes quite effectively, and oysters love it. The point is, shellfish need wine. Ideally it should be something crisp, bright, and steely (one tip that holds up is that oak aged wine and shellfish aren’t a great combo).

From roughly 200 bottles across our July tastings at Food & Wine, here are three of our favorite wine options for seafood, including a red that’s ideal for chilling. Related: Food & Wine / BODEGA GARZÓN For any kind of summery shellfish, whether shrimp on the grill, lobster rolls, or cracked crab, the Spanish grape Albariño is a no-brainer. Whether from the Atlantic coastal waters of Galicia, or, in this case, Uruguay, its zingy approach alongside citrus and melon flavors will always work.

Little known fact for U.S. w.