What Temperature to Serve the Wine?

Someone once, well meaning I'm sure, gave me one of those wine gadget floating thermometers that can, from within the neck of an open full bottle, tell the precise temperature. Let alone that I kept forgetting to wipe it off, resulting in unusual stains in and around my front pocket. Give me a break! I know and believe that temperature is important, shall I pun, to a "degree". A quick overview is that we tend to drink our white wines too cold and our red wines too warm. The colder the wine, the more hidden the perceivable components. In fact, if I'm evaluating a white wine for my wine list, I like to sample at, or slightly below, room temperature. This reveals the best qualities of the white along with any faults. Something that makes an impressive statement to the sommelier or waitstaff is to have your newly selected bottle of white wine placed on the restaurant table, rather than in the ice bucket. The wine will gently coast at a pleasant temperature, forthcoming with the best complexities it possesses. Back in the economically "booming" 80's, sometimes a rich Texan would have me put his incredibly expensive first growth red Bordeaux into an ice bucket for a few minutes.

This may have been ignorance, or just maybe he knew what was best. A dramatic chill is not a great idea for a fragile claret, but don't hesitate to request that the bottle be gently chilled, perhaps while you enjoy appetizers. Kevin Zaraly, of the authoritative "Windows on the World", in Manhattan, likes to throw the bottle of red wine in the refrigerator for about a half hour before the meal begins. Along side the old "white wine with fish" mandate, most everyone learned that red wine is served at "room temperature". Realize that, until very recently, room temperature was not so controlled by thermostats. It is better to consider serving the red wine at cellar temperature, which especially with today's storage devices avec thermostat, meaning wine at around the mid-fifties (that is about twelve degrees Celsius). I don't recommend putting ice cubes in wines, as the melting water quickly dilutes the acidity making the wine taste "flabby".

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