Americans Drink Our Red Wine Too Warm and Our White Wine Too Cold

There! I said it. As a group, Americans drink our red wine much too warm and our white wine much too cold. And, by doing so, we diminish our enjoyment.

Who cares? I do, and you should as well. 

Why? Over the years, sommeliers, oenologists, and oenophiles generally have tried serving wines at a number of different temperatures. From that, they have learned at which temperatures different wine styles and different grapes best exhibit their characteristics. And, after all, while most of us who drink wine do like the pleasand feeling we get from the alcohol, we are presumably also drinking it for the flavor and other characteristics inherent in the wine.

Let's begin with some basic guidelines.

Particularly tannic red wines should generally be served at the warmest temperatures. Cooling them too much diminishes the flavor profile and therefore overemphasizes the tannins. So, of all your wines, serve those big, bold reds at the warmest temperatures (that does not mean room temperature which is too warm for any decent wine).

Fuller bodied wines can and should be served warmer than lighter bodied wines. So, among white wines, serve Chardonnay on the warmer side and Riesling on the cooler side. And, when going to red wines, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah should be served warmer than most and Pinot Noir and particularly Gamay on the cooler side.

If a wine is sparkling, serve it cooler than if it is still. So, serve a Blanc de Blanc (100% Chardonnay) Champagne cooler than you would serve a Chablis.

Particularly aromatic wines can be served cooler than wines that are less so. This means that on the white side, chill Riesling, Gewurtzraminer, and Sauvignon Blanc, for example, considerably more so than you would chill Chardonnay. At the same time, however, the wine may be a bit less expressive when chilled too much, so be careful to feeeze the living daylights out of really bad white wine, but to treat your Pulighny Montrachet with great respect and serve it much warmer.

The sweeter the wine, the cooler you should serve it. The sugars in the wine will allow the wine to withstand the cooler temperatures and will emphasize the acidity more than the sugars thus given the wine better balance.

So, roughly speaking, here are some guidelines that I try to use (from warmest to coolest):

  • Big, bold, younger red wines: 17C/63F
  • Those same wines with aging: 15C/59F
  • Lighter red wines when young: 15C/59F
  • Aged light red wines: 14C/57F
  • Red dessert wines: 13C/55F
  • Full-bodied white wines: 13C/55F
  • Sparkling red wines: 12C/54F
  • Beaujolais: 12C/54F
  • Medium-bodied white wines: 11C/52F
  • Full-bodied sweet whites: 10C/50F
  • Aromatic white wines: 8C/46F
  • Champagne: 6C/43F
  • Aromatic sweet white wines: 5C/41F
And, for particularly low quality wines, subtract 3 degrees Celsius or 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

How do you do all this? Well, you can get a bottle thermometer which will do an okay job, you can experiment, you can temperature control your wines, or you can use this handy-dandy guide:

If you store your wines at room temperature, it will take about 20 minutes in  refrigerator to get your wine down to 17C and it generally takes about 40 more minutes for each 5 degree Fahrenheit reduction in temperature. Of course, your refrigerator may be much different than mine, so try yours and see what you like. 


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