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Giving Red Wines the Chill Treatment
Smart restaurants with great wine lists serve their wines direct from a special dedicated wine fridge, which has different temperature levels for each colour or even each style of wine, but these fridges are expensive and take up space too. Not all restaurants have them, and they often - as do people at home - keep their reds close to the serving area or even the warm kitchen, and consequently serve them too warm. Reds served too warm lose all their bright fruit and taste soupy, something particularly noticeable on a warm summer evening. Whereas we might be educated to serve red wines at 'room temperature' this is quite wrong in a warm centrally heated room or in a hot room without air conditioning. The 'room temperature rule' came from the French word 'chambré' meaning 'bedroom temperature' which years ago was quite a cool 16/18°C or 60/65°F. Ideal serving temperature depends on the type of red wine you are drinking. The general rule is that lighter, softer reds with little tannin, such as Beaujolais or all Gamays, Pinot Noirs and some Italianate wines should be served cooler than structured, tannic wines like Bordeaux, Cabernet Sauvignon or Syrah-based wines. But red wines should never be served at more than about 20°C or 68°F. Today with alcohol levels higher than before in general (often 13.5-14.5%, rather than 12-13% as most wines were a few years ago), there is even more reason to keep the temperature down as warmth exaggerates the 'hot' feeling that high alcohol can give. An ideal solution when possible, is to serve red wines directly from a cellar or a wine fridge at 'cellar temperature' (ideally 12/13°C or 50/55°F). Bigger, tannic wines may need to warm up by a few degrees, but this is easily achieved either by opening for a little while in advance or simply pouring into a warm decanter or glasses. If a red wine is served to you too warm in a restaurant, be brave, ask for an ice bucket (a proper one where ice is mixed with water); you might be given a funny look by the waiter, but in about 10-15 minutes the wine will cool down and be so much fresher and more enjoyable. In an extreme situation like being served a warm glass of red in a bar for example, ask for an ice cube - it may dilute the wine a touch, but it will be much more enjoyable than drinking alcoholic red soup. |
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Excellent advice - including the tip about dropping an ice cube into your glass as a quick fix. When the summer eventually comes to the Limousin, I expect to have to cope with eating outside on afternoons that have touched 40 Celsius. Although it will feel cool when I go inside my old stone cottage, it will still be well over 20 degrees. Under these conditions, I tend to store a bottle or two in the door of my ordinary fridge, and take it out half an hour (or sometimes considerably less) before drinking it.
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