My friend has a running theory that summer doesn’t officially begin until someone opens a bottle of rosé ( or orange wine) outdoors. By that measure, summer has arrived about six weeks early for me most years, and I have no complaints.
There’s a particular pleasure to drinking outside that no bar, however beautiful, can replicate. The quality of the light at six in the evening, the way a cold glass feels in warm hands, the loose sprawl of a good conversation that goes longer than anyone intended. Rooftops, patios, garden tables, warm rhythmic music, balconies barely wide enough for two chairs: each one becomes its own little world once the drinks are poured.
Rosé is the obvious anchor of the season, and for good reason. It’s endlessly versatile, genuinely refreshing, and flatters almost every outdoor setting. A Provençal pours the palest, most elegant glass you’ll find, bone dry with whispers of strawberry and crushed stone. If you want something with a little more presence, a Bandol rosé from the south of France brings depth and a minerality that holds up beautifully to food. Closer to home, producers in the Okanagan, California’s Sta. Rita Hills, and the Finger Lakes have been turning out bottles that deserve a serious look. A well-chilled Grenache-based rosé from any of these regions, poured at the right moment, is one of summer’s more reliable rewards.
The ritual matters as much as the wine. Set the table with actual glasses, even outside. Bring a real ice bucket, or at minimum a cooler that keeps the bottle properly cold. Consider what you’re eating alongside it: a bowl of olives, good cheese, something with citrus or herbs. The food doesn’t need to be elaborate, but it should be considered. A platter of prosciutto-wrapped melon will make any rosé taste better, which is already saying something.
What has changed for me this summer is the drinking vessel itself. A friend brought a set of silicone tumblers to a rooftop gathering a few weeks ago, and I spent the first twenty minutes being quietly skeptical, the way one is when encountering something unfamiliar. By the end of the evening, I was converted. The brand is Porter Green, an Australian company founded in 2018 by two sisters, Mary and Jane, who built their collection around the conviction that outdoor entertaining shouldn’t require a compromise between aesthetics and practicality. Their silicone drinkware looks genuinely good, which is rarer than it sounds in this category, and it behaves exactly as you’d want: unbreakable, reusable, easy to carry, and available in colours that suggest someone with actual taste made the decisions.
The vessel they call the fegg (foldable, ethical, go-anywhere, glass) has become something of a cult object among people who spend time outdoors. It collapses flat, revives into a proper tumbler, and somehow manages not to look like camping equipment while doing so. For a rooftop evening, it’s exactly the kind of object that earns its place without announcing itself.
Rooftop drinking, specifically, rewards a little advance planning. Space is usually limited. Wind is almost always a factor, which means napkins disappear and any candle you’ve brought will spend the evening lying on its side. Glassware has a particular way of becoming a liability the moment someone stands up too quickly or the table is smaller than remembered. Having vessels that survive the inevitable bump or drop changes the calculus considerably, which is perhaps why I’ve started thinking more carefully about what I bring outdoors.
The best rooftop I’ve visited recently belongs to a friend who lives in a building old enough to have a water tower but new enough to have a decent elevator. The view is the kind that reminds you why people endure city living: a spread of rooflines and lit windows that shifts colour as the evening settles in. We drank a Château Minuty rosé, ate bread with very good butter, and talked until the lights of the building across the street were the brightest things visible. No one checked their phone for the last two hours. This is what outdoor drinking, done properly, can produce.
For those assembling a summer patio setup from scratch, the priorities are simpler than most people make them. Good wine, ideally kept cold. Something to eat. Seating that doesn’t require an engineering degree to unfold. And drinkware that can travel, survive, and still look like you gave it some thought. The rest adjusts itself.
Rosé poured outside, at the right temperature, in the right company, needs very little embellishment. The season supplies most of what’s required. The job is simply to show up with something cold, something to eat, and at least one other person who isn’t in a hurry.
Porter Green silicone drinkware is available online at portergreen.com.au and through select retailers worldwide.
