As the hosting season kicks into gear, thoughts are firmly turning towards effortless outdoor get-togethers and crisp seasonal bottles. This week, we examine why white port is the ultimate summer sundowner, how large-format rosés keep your hosting effortless, and the zero-cost temperature hacks that completely unlock your bottles - all before previewing our upcoming private wine tastings at Hic! HQ

WHITE PORT: The Ultimate Sundowner

Looking for the ultimate summer sundowner? If you haven't introduced your fridge to white port yet, you are missing out on the absolute drink of the season. Poured ice-cold, it completely redefines everything you thought you knew about port.

Churchill’s Dry White Port is a brilliant alternative for the summer months. Because it undergoes a decade of ageing in seasoned oak casks, the liquid inside has a stunning, burnished golden-amber colour and a deeply aromatic, crisp profile that is completely refreshing.

The Perfect Summer Serve:

Fill a large wine glass with plenty of ice, pour a generous measure of Churchill’s Dry White Port, top it up with a premium tonic water, and finish with a slice of fresh orange. It is incredibly refreshing, beautifully balanced, and naturally lower in alcohol than a standard spirit mixer—making it the perfect, elegant long drink for long, lazy afternoons in the garden.

Or, if you prefer things pure and simple, serve it straight from the fridge door into a small glass alongside a bowl of salted almonds or green olives. Step away from the predictable, upgrade your summer sipping and experience port’s summer revolution.

Shop Churchill’s Dry White Port

Sizing Up Summer: The Practical Power of Rosé Magnums

Nothing makes an immediate statement quite like a large-format bottle sitting proudly in the middle of the garden table. Moving beyond standard 75cl bottles to magnums and jeroboams - particularly when it comes to pale, crisp summer rosés like AIX, Ultimate Provence, or Chateau Sainte Marguerite - is actually a brilliant tactical move for hosting. It is far more than just creating instant theatre and celebration for your guests.

From a purely practical perspective, a larger volume of liquid takes significantly longer to warm up when exposed to the sun. Plonk one of these bad boys into an ice bucket, and it will hold its refreshing chill for as long as it takes you to smash it. While these legendary releases are available across various formats (from half-bottles upwards), it’s the magnums and larger formats that will save you from constantly running back and forth to the kitchen fridge to uncork a fresh pour, allowing you to enjoy effortless entertaining at its absolute best.

Explore The Large Format Collection

Stop Freezing Your Whites and Burning Your Reds.

Just to be clear: there are absolutely no wine police. If you want to drop ice cubes into a glass of delicate white wine on a scorching summer afternoon because it keeps your drink refreshing, go right ahead. It is your money, your glass, and your evening. Wine should be entirely about pleasure, not snobbery or rigid etiquette. However, if you have spent your hard-earned cash on a beautiful independent bottle, serving it at the wrong temperature means missing out on the best bits. Adjusting the temperature slightly isn't about being precious; it is a completely free trick to unlock the exact flavours the winemaker intended.

We have all heard the old advice to "serve red wine at room temperature." The trouble is, that phrase was coined in the era of drafty, unheated Victorian drawing rooms, where the air sat around 15°C. Today, centrally heated British kitchens comfortably hover around 21°C or 22°C. At that heat, a red wine's structure collapses. The alcohol evaporates out of the glass too fast, creating a hot, spirituous burn that completely masks the fruit. To get the absolute maximum enjoyment out of your liquid, professional cellars and dispensing systems aim for specific real-world temperature windows:

• The Red Wine Window (15°C to 16°C): Dropping a red down to this range causes the fruit flavours to immediately snap into sharp focus, the heavy tannins feel smoother, and the hot burn of the alcohol vanishes. The wine tastes instantly vibrant, refreshing, and balanced. Even heavy, robust reds like Malbec or Shiraz should max out at 18°C—anything higher and the wine turns flabby.
• The White Wine Window (8°C to 10°C): The standard domestic household fridge in the UK is set to a freezing 4°C or 5°C. Serving white wine straight out of that chill completely numbs the volatile aromatics, locks down the fruit compounds, and makes the acid taste fiercely sharp. Bringing it up to 8°C (or 10°C for richer, oak-aged whites) allows the liquid to open up, releasing the beautiful orchard and citrus aromas.

You do not need to walk around your kitchen with a digital thermometer to get this right. You can achieve the perfect serving window by using a beautifully simple, zero-cost trick before your guests arrive:

• Reds In: Take your open bottle of red wine and put it straight into the kitchen fridge for 20 minutes before you intend to pour it. This takes the modern central-heating edge off the glass, dropping it down to that perfect, refreshing cellar temperature.
• Whites Out: Take your bottle of white wine, rosé, or sparkling Champagne out of the fridge 20 minutes before you pour it. This brief rest on the counter allows it to shed the freezing bite of the fridge door, waking up the aromatics and texturing the liquid perfectly. NB: (If you are drinking outdoors in the sun, skip the counter rest and go straight to an ice bucket to defend that perfect chill against the summer heat).

If you want to manage your serving temperatures with a bit more precision during warm summer gatherings or formal dinner parties, these simple additions to your counter gear will keep things running beautifully. Slipping a flexible, cellaring thermometer sleeve over the bottleneck gives you an instant, accurate reading of the liquid's temperature before it ever hits the glass, ensuring you never serve a flabby red or a frozen white.

For outdoor summer dining, an insulated bottle sleeve or a rapid-cooling gel wrap keeps your whites sitting at that optimum 8°C window without the mess of dripping ice buckets, and stops your light summer reds from warming up to kitchen temperatures on the table. Explore our practical selection of daily tools and accessories over in our Gifts Under £25 and Gifts Under £50 collections to keep your bottles in perfect form.

Two Machines, Twelve Glasses: Secure Your Space in OUR Courtyard

Our monthly private wine tastings operate on a very simple rule: absolutely no swirling, no sniffing, and no spitting. Booked strictly in advance for your own group, these sessions mean our focus is exclusively on you and your party for the duration, hosted in our courtyard alongside our state-of-the-art Enomatic machines. We run these private sessions throughout our weekend opening hours - offering flexible early afternoon slots from 2:00pm or early evening slots from 6:00pm. For our classic entry price of £40 per head, you and your guests will embark on our traditional "Drink Along" experience - pouring a generous lineup of eight exceptional still wines completely tailored to the month's theme.

For those looking to elevate their experience, you can upgrade your private booking to the "Dirty Dozen" for £60 per head. This introduces a brilliant four-glass sparkling prologue directly before the main event. Utilising our specialised Enomatic Bubbles machine, this sparkling element showcases a revolving selection of premier styles - spanning vibrant New World sparklers, crisp Crémants, and elegant grower Champagnes. Because treating yourselves to the full twelve-glass lineup takes up more libation time, we typically bring the early evening upgrade slots forward to 5:00pm, allowing you to kick off the night with a premium sparkling round before diving into the rest of the bottles.

Spaces are now open for our upcoming calendar themes:

• July | The Big Bash (USA): A 250th Anniversary West Coast takeover showcasing the bold, expressive, and world-class profiles emerging from California, Oregon, and Washington State.
• August | Holiday Hotspots (Travel by Glass): A liquid tour of definitive summer destinations, focusing on the vibrant, refreshing regional pours you should be drinking on the terrace right now.
• September | Cape Crusaders (South African Electric Wines): A deep dive into high-energy, electric wines shaped entirely by South Africa’s ancient granite soils and fierce ocean breezes.
• October | The Italian Job (Renaissance Rebels): A thrilling heist of sophisticated, boundary-pushing Italian classics changing the landscape of modern winemaking.

Spaces for all flights and sparkling upgrades are secured upon payment in store or via a direct enquiry. Once you reach out, Michelle will check availability, confirm your slot, and arrange payment to lock in your private session.

ENQUIRE ABOUT PRIVATE TastingS