Picnics with my family couldn’t be further from the Von Trapp idyll. I don’t own a hamper, usually forget a blanket and tend to find myself navigating the health-and-safety hazards of the local park while my children fight over the last bag of Pom-Bears. Introducing wine both improves and complicates matters, because it requires planning, as you’ll know only too well if you’ve ever swirled lukewarm rosé from a plastic cup in the sun.
Temperature is a key issue. Summer wine choices tend naturally to skew towards the white, pink or fizzy, all of which we’re used to drinking fridge-cold. “Too cold, in fact,” says Honey Spencer, sommelier and author of Natural Wine, No Drama: An Unpretentious Guide. Take a bottle straight from the fridge, she says, and it will do better given 20 minutes to warm up a touch. If you’re not the kind of picnicker who has a snazzy ice box, however, it’s better to avoid lighter whites such as sauvignon blanc or pinot grigio, which are usually best served between 7C and 10C, and instead look to more forgiving, fuller-bodied whites or rosés that can be served at up to 13C.
With this in mind, I’d hit up the Med and southern Europe. The Portuguese white from the Douro in today’s pick is versatile and deliciously good value; Sicily is another reliable source of affordable, fruit-forward food wines that are as happy alongside sandwiches and tarts as shop-bought dips, tubs of salad and sweet bakes. Aromatic catarratto, which accounts for over 30% of the island’s wine production, is an ideal grape here, and I’ve recommended two today: a round, unfiltered white and a more textural orange.
Light and juicy reds that suit being slightly chilled are winners here, too. Beaujolais fits the bill as something that’s relatively young and has lots of lip-smacking, cherry notes to sit easily beside cheese and cold cuts. From elsewhere, look for grapes such as grenache, malbec and syrah (or blends of them). My favourite find of the summer, however, is the rather special côtes de Rhône in today’s pick, which has proved to be a multi-generation crowdpleaser (if you have a wine sleeve to put it in, so much the better, but, like the whites above, it would also be fine in a cool bag).
A co-fermented wine, made from both red and white grapes, might also be fun: these often look like dark rosé and have a more textural mouth-feel, so are great with food; they typically have low-ish ABVs, too, which is ideal if you’re out in the sun. I adore the juice, fun and freshness of Espera’s Palheto 2019, a blend of four indigenous Portuguese grapes.
And what to drink from? Reusable stemless wine glasses are a good investment, and bring things up a notch from flimsy plastic or paper cups. If you don’t want to worry about corkscrews versus screw caps, it might be worth considering canned wine. Vin Can Can is dedicated to really great-quality wine tinnies, and includes taster cases of six 250ml cans for about £30 a pop.
Finally, if you want an insurance policy for keeping your wine cool on a picnic, Spencer has a brilliant trick: she freezes a bunch of grapes the night before, pops it in the cold bag just before she sets off, drops one or two frozen grapes into each glass at the picnic and the wine stays cooler for longer and without becoming diluted, as it would with ice.
Five picnic-friendly bottles
Tule Bianco Catarratto 2023 £10.50 The Sourcing Table, 12%. Apples, melons and a lovely round finish. I’d sip this all afternoon in the sun.
Forza della Natura £9.99 Waitrose, 13%. Generously peachy with a hint of marmalade: good with cold meats and tinned fish.
Taste the Difference Douro White 2022 £10.50 Sainsbury’s, 12.5%. A mineral, peachy bargain, and great with creamy stuff from tzatziki to quiche.
Carambouille 2023 £15.50 Emile Wines, 13.5%. A fresh, spicy, ruby-red drop that’s best a bit chilled.
Espera Palheto 2021 £22.47 Uncharted Wines £12%. Try something new with this immensely quaffable, energetic blend of white and red grapes.
