Happy National Red Wine Day: Cheers to the TV Characters Who Love the Drink

The Monterey Five can be spotted sipping wine in their mansions, at parties or deeply staring into the ocean as the waves crash over the rocks. 

Eleanor (Kristen Bell) loves a glass of wine in The Good Place, especially when the architects in the afterlife turn on a “filter” where you can’t get hung over. Um, we wish we had that.

Sharing a glass of pinot is what friends are for! Although, you’d hate to drink a little too much and spill that you accidentally killed your new friend’s husband. In Dead to Me, Judy (Linda Cardellini) has to keep that secret from Jen (Christina Applegate), even as the two bond over wine and binge-watching TV.

Who’s that girl? It’s Jess (Zooey Deschanel)! The lead character on New Girl was all about getting a deal on rosé, once admitted that “pink wine makes me slutty” and may or may not have opened a bottle of the pink stuff when she was feeling low in hopes of being alone and listening to Taylor Swift.

Jane (Katie Stevens), Kat (Aisha Dee) and Sutton (Meghann Fahy) are the epitome of millennials on the Freeform series, so when they’re not kicking butt at Scarlet or meeting in the fashion closet to spill secrets they are drinking rosé by the bottle (or any wine will do) and we salute them. 

The women of LADYGANG need one thing to fuel their podcast and their TV show…rosé. These three ladies are basic bitches and they know it and it’s why we love them so, well, that and the fact that they are hilarious.

Bravo’s Summer House squad is all about day-drinking in the Hamptons all summer long and their drink of choice is usually rosé, because duh.

Sarah Paulson as Ally on American Horror Story: Cult kicked off the show’s premiere episode with one very memorable scene…grabbing a bottle of rosé to defend herself against killer clowns. Great weapon? Probably not. Great drink choice? For sure!

OK, we know this is technically a movie, but because you can watch it on TV (or on your laptop) we’re letting it stay here. Plus, all of the characters on Wine Country drink lots and lots of wine, even if they don’t know what wine they are drinking and laugh with their besties while doing so, which is totally great.

Every week that Scandal was on air you could find us on the couch with a glass of red saluting the fierce female that was Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). She cleaned up everyone else’s messes, and did it with style and sass, which is why we’ll always drink red wine in her honor…with a side of popcorn.

Alicia’s (Julianna Margulies) life was very stressful, so she liked a good glass of wine. What’s wrong with that? Her husband went to jail after a sex and corruption scandal leaving her to fend for the family, so yes, you’d drink too. Plus, like Alicia always says, she doesn’t need wine she likes it.

Karen’s (Megan Mullally) drink of choice might be vodka, but the lady also likes to bring “juice boxes” to parties AKA boxed wine, so she’s a wino like the rest of us.

White wine, ice cubes and sprite AKA “funky juice” is what Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) loved on 30 Rock and we’re all in on this concoction. 

The one thing we loved most about the Cougar Town characters, besides their friendships with one another, was their obsession with wine. When they drank wine they went big…like really, really big.

The whole crew on How I Met Your Mother could drink with the best of them, but the Canadian cutie AKA Robin (Cobie Smulders) drank even more. She loved all kinds of alcohol, but when she was feeling low she’d drink from the wine bottle under her desk at work. Don’t act like you’ve never been there!

Both of the Lannister siblings like their wine and we love (and at times hate) them even more for it. Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) however does two things really well and he tells everyone about it saying, “I drink and I know things.” Preach, Tyrion, preach!

In almost every episode of Grace and Frankie, Grace (Jane Fonda) is drinking. She either goes for vodka or wine and when she doesn’t have a drink in her hand you know something is terribly wrong!

Wine Wednesday was the best day of the week on Kathie Lee and Hoda. These two hosts weren’t acting—they’re not TV characters, but they were on TV—when it comes to how much they loved drinking wine and living it up together, especially when they’d travel (or when they were just at work, obviously).

Tami (Connie Britton) didn’t drink as much as some of the characters on this list, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t like white wine at dinnertime. In fact, after a long day of helping her husband coach his team (or at least mentor them) she deserved a glass of wine…and she always got what she wanted.

Carrie’s (Claire Danes) life is probably as stressful as one’s can get and she navigates it with lots of help from wine. Maybe it’s a little too much at times but we still love her.

Have you noticed that women in high-powered professions indulge in wine? Well, Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling) was a doctor and a single mom on The Mindy Project who held it all together with humor and grace and maybe a little wine. OK, she loved all alcohol, but wine was usually her go-to.

What is the one thing that every Real Housewives series has in common? Wine! Sure, they all have lots of drama as well, but these ladies have bonded over their serious love of wine.