An American’s first wine encounter while in Europe can elicit surprise. It’s not that Europeans keep the best for themselves — a strangely persistent canard. Rather, it’s the temperature at which wine is served. Whites abroad are typically served a little warmer and reds consistently cooler than Americans are used to.
Is this just a matter of taste, or do the French, Italians and Spanish know something we don’t? Does every wine have its own ideal temperature? How can we know what temp is right for a given glass?
Underground temperatures vary from place to place, but within the latitudinal bracket where wine grapes thrive, cellars that are deep enough to remain at a steady temperature through four seasons tend to register around 50 to 55 degrees. It so happens that this is an ideal range for wine to mature safely and gracefully.
It also happens that this temperature is close to ideal for consuming many white wines, in part because within this range it will be warm enough for the aromatic molecules to volatilize (escape the surface and make a beeline for your nose), but still cool enough for the wine to be refreshing and appetizing.
To get an idea if you’re in the ballpark without recourse to a thermometer (or a nurse), just grasp the barrel of your bottle of white or rosé. If the sensation reminds you of a pleasantly cool glass of water freshly drawn from the tap, rejoice. You’re either already there or very close.
Reds require a little more attention, but the hand test still provides reliable guidance. Lighter, low tannin reds love a chill. Treat them as you would whites or rosés. Add a few therms as your red increases in heft and/or tannin. Actual room temp (68o-70o and up) will be far too warm for all but the most muscular reds.
A variation on the hand test goes like this: No bottle of wine should ever be served at body temp, so if you don’t feel some coolness when you grasp the bottle, your wine is far, far too warm.
All in all, it’s always better to start with something that’s a bit too cool, since a wine brought to the table in this condition will gradually rise in temperature, at some point passing through a thermal window that, with a bit of practice, you will recognize as its sweet spot.
On the other hand, too-warm wine is unlikely to cool down without intervention. Keeping an ice bucket nearby and returning the bottle to it from time to time helps maintain a steady state.
Restaurants are as likely to get all this wrong as ordinary folk, so don’t be reluctant to put your hand on the bottle of wine the sommelier is about to uncork and, sensing that it’s not in drinking condition, politely yet firmly insist that it be either given a chance to warm up or be iced down.
At home, it can take hours in a refrigerator to cool wine at room temperature to a pleasing freshness. This is in part because the glass bottle has to chill before the wine inside can. So, when you need a quick fix, pop the bottle straight into the freezer compartment for 30 minutes or so. This will do no harm — but be sure to set a timer. Next fastest, a bucket with a slurry of ice and water (slip the bottle into a plastic bag first so the label doesn’t become waterlogged and slough off.).
To hastily adjust a too cool bottle, a 2 minute dip into tepid – never hot – water will do the trick.
Like decanting, temperature management is a basic skill in the wine drinker’s kit. Getting it right(er) can make a real difference, even if it is only one of degree.
-Stephen Meuse