Drink Like You’re on Vacation (Even If You’re Not) – Shall We Wine

6 Travel-inspired wines and cocktails without boarding a plane

There is something poetic about the way summer changes our relationship with a glass in hand. One sip has the power to transport us from a crowded weekday calendar to a breezy piazza, a sun kissed place oceanside, or an open-air café where time seems to loosen its grip. I think that’s why summer seems to have a few unspoken rules: we collectively decide to give ourselves permission to slow down, hug a little more soft life energy, and call a temporary truce with whatever has been stealing our sanity! It’s a reminder that one of the greatest gifts of food and beverage is its ability to celebrate the diversity of the world, while making distant places feel surprisingly close. Yes, sometimes summer means actually getting away, but realistically, many of us don’t get away as often as we’d like and it simply means wishing you could. So even if our passport stays tucked away in a drawer, our palate is more than capable of taking the trip.

Summer also reminds us to embrace the pause. To step outside, soak up a little more sunshine, and let a great drink become less about the occasion and more about the feeling it creates and who we share it with. These are the moments that remind us of sonder, that any random person carries a story as rich and fascinating as our own. So whether you’re embracing a very demure cocktail, making a hard launch with a new bottle of wine, or pouring something wonderfully flirty for golden hour, summer is a season that rewards curiosity over perfection.

Here are 6 selections that capture that effortless vacation state of mind, ranging from easygoing picks to ones slightly more baller and special: