Red and White Wine Serving Temperatures
 

I've always served Pinot/Burgundy wines at a temperature slightly less than room temp, but haven't tried this with other reds. With whites, I've often felt that a lot of wine drinkers over chill them, thereby closing down the wine and eliminating a lot of the subtle flavors present. What does everyone else do?

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I agree that whites are almost always overchilled....

However, I will guess that unless you live in Canada and dont use heating then reds at only slightly below RT is just too warm....

Should reds in fact be that much cooler? I've found a consensus amongst wine people out here in SAN that a few degrees seems to be correct.

Just what is meant by "room temperature"?

60 degrees F? 65 degrees F? 75 degrees F?

Time of year and the setting for AC or heating will affect whether or not you can serve the wine as is or whether chilling it for 30 minutes or so in the fridge is necessary.

Since it's a matter of taste, experiment with it.

room temp around here seems to be in the low 70's, so i have had good luck serving at around 67-69 degrees for reds. i tried pulling some reds out of the wine fridge and letting them warm to maybe 60-63 degrees but the wines just didn't taste right.

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Amen!!

UCBeau, try this fun little experiment and take no one elses word for it.

Chardonnay (or any white):

Take out of fridge (and leave it out), open, taste. Then wait 30 minutes. Poor, taste. Then wait another 30 minutes, poor taste. By the 60 minute mark the condensation is almost gone and the Chardonnay is slightly cooled. Then figure out what temp you like it better at.

Red:

Take out of wine fridge @ 56 degrees. Open the bottle (as it works same way and decants at the same time) taste a little, wait 30 minutes as it warms to closer to 60 degrees and taste again and then again another 30 minutes where it's likely to be room temp.

So IMHO, you will then figure out how you like your temp. I know where I like mine, but not everyone is the same. As the wines warm up, the fruit and flavor characteristics change (However 80 degrees is too hot). IE: For whites, if it's really cold, you'll barely get any, you'll get acidity, sweetness, etc but likely little fruit.

PDXOutbound, thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a whirl (or swirl) tonight! :)

decent red burg and beau taste best to me at about 65-70F. good white burg,Riesling and chard 60F.chablis &white Bordeaux a bit colder to bring out the flint or tart 55F. hearty reds and fruit bombs, 70-75. dry champagne downright cold. most sweet(port,Sauternes,beerenauslaser) at rt.

For red burgundies and pinot noir I prefer cooler temperatures of around 60-61 degF. This is especially important for the high-alcohol pinots, which I do not drink much of. It is pleasant to enjoy how a good pinot/burgundy's aromas opens up in the glass for the duration of the event/dinner. If one starts out a bit too warm (68-70 deg), I think you miss some of the delicate aromatics that can get overshadowed by stronger volatile aromas.

For Bordeaux/Merlot/Cabernets, I let it have a wider range, but generally below 68. It depends on the age of the wine (decanting and aerating considerations) and the style of the wine.

For crispy, acidic whites, 50-55degrees works for me.

i think you and i have similar preferences then, those temps are what i prefer and tend to serve wine at..the only differences are that i prefer sauternes/barsac/tokaj at 65 or so, but that could be the wrong temp to be tasting them at. port for me should be near room temp, maybe a couple of degrees cooler. also the big bold reds sometimes confound me, have you ever tried a zin that's around 63-67? i've had them like that a few times and they seem to show more structure, despite them being known fruit-bombs.

speaking of decanters & decanting..... one of the most common mistakes that folks make when decanting is that they forget service temperature.... say you have the wine in a service refrigerator/cooler at the optimal temp - but you then decant and place it on some counter or dinner table... more often than not, the wine adjusts to 'room temperature' and that is almost always not the ideal service temp..... :p

The cheaper the wine, the colder it should be!

"Room Temperature" is 20c. That is too warm for red. I don't know what my preferred temp is by degree, but I bet it is around 60 or a touch higher.

so you either have to chill the decanter or figure out some other way to get those hour or hours to pass by while the wine opens up but doesn't get too warm to drink.

You mean you don't put the Lafite decanted into the freezer? :D

hahahahaha wait who doesn't want Lafite ice cubes?

Yes!!!! Correcto !!!! ^

If you have a wine cooler... you need to allocate some shelf space to fit your decanter... actually the duck style decanters are the best since they will usually fit in half a shelf space, provided you place it on one of the racks that is somewhat taller than average.... the larger magnum decanters, while very pretty are a pain in the rear for this because most of the time they will require you to have a half empty cooler to be able to do this.

For those that have a proper cellar... its fine to just pour & decant and leave the carrafe in the cellar until you are ready to go. Actually, as long as you are good with your timing, your normal housefold refrigetaror also works, but make sure to cover the decanter mouth with plastic wrap so that the odors of the refrigerator dont come into play.

I hope someone is taking honest spoof juice temp. measurements :D

if you´re serving spoof juice.... forget the temperature. Just remember the ice-cubes !!!!! :D

My wine cooler isn't big enough to fit even a duck style decanter, plus I hate those kinds anyways. My storage facility is a good 10 miles away so that kind of negates using it, as tempting as it is :p
Next time I'll chill the decanter beforehand, as well as the wine, and then use the refrigerator method and see how that turns out.

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If you will use the refrigerator then there's no need to pre chill...

Sure there is, if I just let the decanter sit out, in this heat the wine temperature will rise beyond the desired level...

...? I thought you meant pre chill before you put into the fridge.... if the last stop is the domestic fridge, that operates at levels close to 3-4 degrees Celcius so that should be enough cold to bring it down quickly... actually, its easy to over chill when you use the standard refrigerator so time management is key... :-: @:-)

i know it sounds dorky, but i was gonna use an egg timer to make sure things go well..

French point of view
 

May I add my french point of view? :D

It's abvious, but in the US, drinks are always served much colder than in Europe. All americans I know, always ask for ice. More ice.... And some put it in the wine - Never do this, please :D :td::td:

Obviously, you knew about that one. Therfore, I can not help with this fridge discussion, I have an electric, small wine cellar. It just comes out at the right temperature. You can feel the bottle and say: OK, there we go. I admire that all of your wines are actually decanté.. You must drink really great wines then!
When it comes to red wine, the serving temperature should be around 16-18°C or 60.8 °F to 64.4 °F Some years ago, this corresponded to the ambient temperature , today, ambient temperature is about 20-21°C or 68.0 °F up to 69.8 °F. But do not serve red wine at this temperature! It would loose all its vivacity and the alcohol would be too much in the foreground as it would leave the wine to early. BUt if you do this, some of you do, well if you like it in the US, never mind our french point of view :)
I think, when it's too cold, you taste the tannin and the accidtiy and this is just the worst :D
Exception, of course: le Beaujolais: 14-15°C or 57.2 °F to 59.0 °F
White wine
Great white wines: 14-16°C or 57.2 °F -60.8 °F
Small white wines: colder much colder 10-13°C 50.0 °F up to 55.4 °F

And my all time favorite, Champage about 7°C or 44.6 °F

But the most striking point is not the temperature but how to mesure the temperature - at the outside of the bottle? There are these special thermometers. But they do not work exactly all the time. The thermometer to put in the bottle is tricky. I use it. Well and then again, if you have already opened the bottle and it does not have the right temperature? Just use the gaz to close it again. All other methods aren't working all the time. Close the bottle and put it in the fridge. :p No,no,no...
http://www.wineracksplansandmore.com/prrewiprgasb.html

And what about tranportation? I always have the problem to get it over to Berlin from France and this destroyed a lot of great bottles. I still do not know to proceed. Has anyone a good answer for this one?
There is just nothing to do about it with the airplane, I think :(

And than the top thing: Learning how to hold the glass
This changes everything about the temperature. I' ve seen people in ***Michelin Star Restaurants in New York who became the mock of the waiters because they did not know hot to hold a glass. But that is a different subject and can not be described.

Ok, call me a snob, it's offical. :p

FWIW I hate seeing people who don't know how to hold a glass.

I am one American who hates Ice, there are a small few who do not and are proud of it...but that's for another topic.

As for ice in the wine...I've seen it here, and I've also seen it in Europe. ;)

I don't think there is a right or a wrong answer. I think it totally depends on the wine, the conditions, etc.

We have a chardonnay we love. It's wonderful at room temp, indeed at the winery it is not chilled, they serve it at room temp.

If however we are sitting outside on a hot summer day, it's spectacular iced and served cold. It would still be spectacular served warmish, but that little extra bit of refreshment makes it wonderful. Many rose's are thet same way, they can be served at a variety of temperatures depending on what their intent is.

But I will agree a "cheap" (for lack of a better word, I don't believe price and taste go hand in hand all the time) chardonnay is best served iced cold, or boiling hot, as in reduced to a sauce for seafood or something..

Reds I tend to like at room temperature, no matter what the temperature of the room is. If it's summer and the room is 10 degrees warmer, I prefer the wine to be too. I don't like a big red to be too cool in comparison to the room temperature, I think that really changes the volitiles and holds back them being released when you swirl it around and sniff it.

all my wine is stored at 55 degrees in my cellar - when i open a bottle whether it's red or white, it sits out on my counter (either in bottle or decanter) and I taste as the wine warms. I personally enjoy reds and whites the most when they are slightly below room temp (low 60s i guess).

I do however prefer white rhone (marsanne, rousanne, viognier) to be room temperature - i love the classic honey and oil components that explode out of the glass as the wine achieves this temperature. anything cooler masks those delicous aromas.

The temperature, in this case, masks the alcohol (which can be overpowering on subpar chardonnays). This is a testament to the quality of the fruit being used. Quality fruit can stand up to high alcohol levels (Carinval of Love is a good example of that), subpar fruit unfortunately falls short in many cases.

Decanting
 

When the big kids bring their wines to an OZ trade tasting, they usually pour the wine into one decanter, then dump it back and forth a half a dozen times, then dump it back into the bottle. go on to the next bottle.

in Montalcino in restaurants, they have a decanter that allows the wine to swirl down the sides of the decanter when poured.

in DC, one restaurant had half price wine monday nights. there were usually a couple of wines that the cost price(to be tripled) was determined by dividing the case price by 12. wines that came 6 to the box were of considerable value. these guys did not have a decanter. we brought our own. they had an excellent selection of CA cabs. paul hobbs, fisher,peter michael.

went to a tasting dinner of 10-20 yo bordeaux. they brought out the decanters, and rinsed them with an old Lagrange.

Holding a Wine Glass
 

How does one hold a wine glass. i see lots of beer bottle holding in movies, but not much wine glass holding.

by the stem? with or without extended pinkie?
by the base? i understood that Moselle glasses had a green base so one would not show finger prints? sure is a lot easier to swirl the wine in the glass by holding the stem.

by the bowl? one hand or two? thought by the bowl was forbidden, then Reidel came out with stemless. only after training from Yoda, can one not grab the bowl on that baby.

i usually grab the bowl on my restaurant served whites to get them warm enough to clear the ice from around the edges.

In all honesty, my wine usually doesn't sit long enough in the glass for it to really matter how I hold it. I'm really bad about that, if I want it to last so I can taste it over time, I will have to pour out two glasses and not touch one.

Many people feel holding it by the bowl warms up the contents too much and that you should only hold it by the stem.

I hold it by the stem, sans extended pinkie. Feels natural to me. If I'm holding a white that's overchilled, I'll hold it by the bowl to warm it gently for a few minutes.

I'm really worried about holding my wine glass correctly. not just how FT'ers hold theirs. i do not want waiters snikkering behind my back because i've grabbed the wrong handle on my wine glass. is there a robert parker of crystal?

this is sort of like do i put out my lead crystal, or is that poisonous? i use titanium chrystal most of the time, as most of my drinking partners are spastic drunks, and lead crystal is very soft glass. is this a real mistake?

i recall in my youth frequently drinking taittinger comtes de champagne blanc de blanc out of a plastic dog bowl as it was the only drinking container on the boat. held it with 2 hands, by the way.

:D^

That gave me a good chuckle!

Yum, but I hope you chilled the bowl first.