WIN YOUR OWN 30 Bottle BATCH!
Enter our on-line contest to win a free batch of
Cellar Craft South African Shiraz!
Simply go to our Website http://www.carafe.ca/main.html
Click on “Enter To Win A Free Batch Shiraz!”
It’s that easy.
The general advice on wine serving temperatures is to chill your white wines, and to drink the reds at room temperature. That advice is a little simplistic, however, and as we head into summer it is worth taking a closer look.
The ideal serving temperature for a bold and tannic red – say that Australian Shiraz waiting for the steaks to come off the BBQ – is about 16° to 18°. Above that temperature the alcohol becomes very volatile, unbalances the wine, and makes it taste hot and thin, so parking the bottle outside on the patio table on a hot day is doing the wine (and you!) no favours. Keep it inside in the air conditioning, or stick it in the fridge for 10 to 15 minutes to put a slight chill on it, and you will enjoy it even more. Be careful though – chill it too much and the tannins take over and the wine tastes astringent.
Lighter and softer reds with little tannin, like a Valpolicella or in fact many of our 4-week reds, actually benefit from lower serving temperatures and would always be happy with some time in the fridge.
Give them half an hour or so to drop the temperature to as low as 12° before serving and keep the bottle in a wine chiller, if you have one, when you bring the bottle to the table. With whites the advice is also not as simple as “chill it”. The colder a wine is served, the more of the aroma and bouquet you miss. A light white without a lot of character will be most refreshing if chilled well by an hour or more in the fridge, but a higher quality aromatic white like a Viognier or a full-bodied, well-oaked Chardonnay is best served relatively warm – about 12° to 15°. Any colder than that and you lose a lot of what the wine has to offer.
The best way to see what difference temperature can make is to experiment. You might be surprised how a little fridge time improves your enjoyment of your wine, especially the reds, as the days warm!
Article courtesy of Geoff Barley.
