Serving Temperature Of Wine
Wine serving temperatures are the subject of this part of our wine 101 guide…
The temperature at which a wine is served is all-important, so you should take the time to at least study the basics. It’s commonly said that whites should be served chilled and red wines at room temperature, but that’s not entirely true.
Most domestic refrigerators keep their internal environment at around 5 degrees, which is much too cold for most white wines. Champagne and dry white wines of a high quality should be served at a temperature of about 7 degrees and 11 degress (sometimes even a little higher). Putting white wine in the fridge for an hour prior to serving it will let it to reach the right temperature, though it can be served right away if it’s been stored in a cellar. Cheaper sparkling wines, sweet white wines and inexpensive white wines are best a little colder, maybe 5 degrees to 9 degrees, so two hours or so should bring the wine down to a reasonable temperature.
As with white wines, red wines also need to be chilled. The centrally heated houses of today are too warm for red wines to be served at ‘room temperature’. The ideal serving temperature for most fine red wines is maybe 13 degrees to 17 degrees, considerably cooler than modern houses, though this was a normal temperature a century ago. So, many reds, unless stored somewhere suitably cool, will benefit from being placed in a fridge for around 30 minutes.
If not done with care, wine can be damaged when it’s temperature is changed. Gentle cooling in the fridge is best, with cooling in a bucket of water and ice also being a good option. It will have the effect of bringing the wine down to 0 degrees, this is far too cold to appreciate the wine, so you’ll need to remove the bottle before it gets that cold. The risk of damaging wine is more significant when trying too warm a bottle that is too cool. Warm the wine gently, ideally by looking forward and bringing the wine from its cool storage area, be it wine cellar or fridge, several hours earlier.
If you’re not sure about the serving temperature, it’s best to go for colder rather than warmer. Wines like that will quickly warm up in the glass, probably releasing nice aromas as it does so. You can cup your hand around the body of a glass to encourage the wine to warm, however, there’s no easy way of cooling a wine served too warm.
