Obviously not all girls nights in need an overarching reason to happen. Just hanging out with friends because it’s fun is good reason enough. For this category of girls night in, drinking you and your pals favourite wines is always a solid choice. Some people prefer red and some white, so for a simple night in with your best friends, having something familiar is often a good pick. However, if the same wines always get drank during a girls night in, mixing it up can be a good way to spice up the night. One excellent option that one of the wine merchants of The Corkscrew, Colm Douglas, recommends are the Pipoli Aglianico del Vulture 2013, a best seller and works well for all types of occasions from pizza and pasta to sitting and chatting on the balcony. Another great choice is the Casa Emma Chianti Classico 2013, a superb glass of Sangiovese that will also fit a variety of occasions and class them up.

Celebrations of any kind, engagements, reunions, promotions, etc., are all superb reasons to have a night with your friends and pop open a bottle of wine. The stereotypical celebration drink, champagne or prosecco, is a timeless pick, but not the only choice by far. However, if you are a sparkling wine person, Saileog of The Celtic Whiskey Shop recommends trying Cava instead as it’s made the same way as champagne, but is half the price and has a unique complex character. Celebratory get togethers often involve food, so choosing a wine pairing based on the food being served is a good thing to consider.

Spending a little extra can be nice for a special night, so selecting a red such as a Barolo from Piedmont with its fruity aromas and ripe tannins or a Brunello di Montalcino, both sold at The Corkscrew. Though celebrations don’t mean that the wine has to be more expensive. Baggot Street Wines offers an excellent selection of fabulous wines that won’t put a large hole in your wallet. They recommend choosing a Sancerre Brosses 2015 as it is “a fresh and elegant white from the Loire Valley in France, full of minerality and citrus fruits with a hint of floral freshness on the finish” or a Marina Cvetic Montepulciano 2009 if you want a “full bodied red showing lovely black fruits with some intense chocolate richness with a touch of spice and violets.” Selecting a wine that people will savor is ideal for a celebratory girls night in.

It may not always be the most fun night, but a girls night in after a breakup is a given. We’ve all been there and know how much better it feels to be surrounded by your closest girl friends in a time of need. As Colm Douglas of The Corkscrew, says about wines for a sad time of need like breakups, “people are usually looking for quaffable wines, with low acidity and good fruit in whites and low tannin fruit forward in red.” And while we may not want to admit it, Colm says what we’re all thinking about what we want at times like this: “Wines that essentially don’t put barriers in the way of being consumed in one sitting, since people are not going to remember really and truly what they tasted 48-72 hours later.” The Corkscrew recommends a Falerio White, Picpoul and Mariana Red for breakup circumstances. These wines are of the cheaper and easier to drink variety, but still offer comfort and good flavour.