Introducing Liquid Sunshine: your go-to flight for summer wines
The Vagabond tasting flight designed for long evenings, warm pavements and the first sip in the sun
There’s a moment every year when it happens.
The coat stays at home. Someone suggests sitting outside. The pub garden suddenly looks packed by 4pm. And somewhere across Britain, people quietly stop ordering heavy reds and start reaching for something colder, fresher and a bit more alive.
In fact, according to recent retail analysis, rosé sales jump by as much as 150% once temperatures hit 20°C. Britain quite literally has a “rosé tipping point”, according to The Times.
Welcome to Liquid Sunshine. A new tasting flight on the Vagabond app built around wines that feel like summer in a glass.
Not just because they’re refreshing. But because sunshine changes wine long before you ever drink it.
Sunlight changes grapes. Grapes change flavour. Flavour changes mood.
Wine is one of the few drinks that starts with weather.
More sunlight means more photosynthesis. More photosynthesis means riper grapes. Riper grapes develop more sugars, more texture and often more intense fruit character. Researchers at both the University of Oxford and University of California, Davis have found strong links between warmer growing seasons and wines with richer flavours, greater ripeness and more expressive aromatics.
That matters even more for styles like rosé, skin contact wines and juicy chillable reds, where texture, brightness and fruit purity are everything.
And then there’s us.
Sunshine affects how we taste too. In warmer weather, our palates often become more sensitive to alcohol and tannin, while acidity and freshness feel more refreshing and more balanced.
That’s why certain wines suddenly feel right in summer. Wines with crunch. Lift. Saltiness. Texture. Wines that work with grilled food, long lunches and people hanging around for one more glass.
Or as Vagabond Head of Wine Academy Ben Gubbins puts it:
“Summer wines aren’t necessarily simpler wines. They’re often more energetic wines. The acidity feels brighter, the fruit feels juicier and the whole thing becomes more social. These are wines that make people lean in and talk.”
And honestly, that’s what this flight is really about.
So what’s on the flight?
Ben’s pick
Classic southern French rosé energy. Pale, dry, savoury and built for sunshine. The kind of wine that suddenly makes olives, seafood and crisps feel like a complete meal.
Ben picked this because Sainte Victoire rosé has that perfect tension between freshness and texture.
“For me, summer wines need energy. I want something refreshing, textured and food friendly, not just something cold. The Sainte Victoire rosé absolutely nails that balance. There’s bright peach fruit, freshness and minerality, but also enough structure to keep you coming back for another glass.”
Jose’s pick
Made in London at Vagabond Urban Winery, this is summer through an English lens. Fresh red fruit, crunchy acidity and proper vibrancy.
Head Winemaker Jose Quintana sees English rosé as perfectly suited to modern drinking.
“English rosé is really exciting right now because you get this brilliant natural freshness from the climate, but you can still build texture and complexity into the wine. Our Urban Winery rosé has creamy strawberry fruit, spice and a proper mouthwatering finish. It’s refreshing, but there’s still loads going on.”
Jose also points out that sunshine doesn’t just impact ripeness. It changes how grapes build flavour compounds over the growing season.
“A sunny vintage can completely change the aromatic intensity of a wine. You see more fruit expression, more generosity and more texture in the final wine.”
Freddie’s pick
Wild. Cloudy. Slightly chaotic in the best possible way.
This skin contact Italian wine is exactly the sort of thing that makes sense after your second glass sitting outside. Texture, citrus peel, herbs and sunshine all colliding together.
Vagabond buyer Freddie loves wines like this because they blur the line between serious and fun.
“Summer is when people become more adventurous with wine. Maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the social side of it, but people loosen up a bit. Skin contact wines suddenly make loads of sense because they’re textured, savoury and brilliant with food.”
He also reckons warmer evenings change the pace people drink at.
“You tend to sip slower, snack more and share more. Wines like this evolve over an evening, which is exactly what you want.”
2024 Garcia Perez Bobal
Colin’s pick
Proof that summer reds deserve more respect.
Bobal is juicy, bright and packed with crunchy dark fruit, especially with a slight chill on it. This is barbecue wine. Pizza wine. Park wine. “Just one more glass” wine.
Buyer Colin says people often underestimate lighter reds in warm weather.
“Everyone defaults to rosé or white, but chilled reds can be unbelievable in summer. The freshness comes alive and suddenly the fruit profile feels completely different. Bobal has this brilliant combination of depth and drinkability.”
He’s also seeing more people choosing wines around mood rather than colour categories.
“People don’t necessarily think ‘I want a red’. They think ‘I want something refreshing, juicy and social’. That opens up loads of possibilities.”
Why sunshine makes wine taste better
Scientifically? It’s complicated.
Emotionally? Not really.
Sunshine changes where we sit, what we eat, how long we stay out and who we spend time with. More daylight means more socialising. More shared plates. More spontaneous glasses of wine on random Tuesdays.
There’s even evidence that sunlight and vitamin D positively affect mood and social behaviour. Which probably explains why the first genuinely warm weekend in Britain feels like a national festival.
Wine becomes part of that rhythm.
And certain wines just belong there more naturally than others.
