Learn
Serving wine
Temperature is the thing most people get wrong, and it is easy to fix.
The short answer
Most white wine is served too cold and most red too warm. Fridge-cold mutes aroma; room temperature in a heated house makes red taste of alcohol. Twenty minutes either way fixes most bottles.
Overview
Most red wine is served too warm and most white too cold. Both are easy to correct and both make a substantial difference.
"Room temperature" is advice from an era of unheated houses. A modern room at 21°C is far warmer than any red wine wants, and warmth makes alcohol obtrusive and fruit flabby. Twenty minutes in the fridge fixes it.
Very cold whites lose their aroma. A rich, oaked white shows far more at 12°C than at 6°C.
Light reds — Beaujolais, Loire Cabernet Franc, Frappato — are genuinely better with a light chill.
The glass matters more than the shape of it. A reasonably large glass filled a third full lets you swirl; a small one filled to the brim does not.
Where you can see it
- Red served too warm
- A red at 22°C smells spirity and tastes heavy. Fifteen minutes in the fridge changes it more than decanting would.
- White served too cold
- Straight from the fridge, a good white tastes of very little. Ten minutes out and the aroma arrives.
Sources
Sources consulted
- WSET educational materials and the Systematic Approach to Tasting — Wine & Spirit Education Trust