EZ Rock and Heather Kingston, “Temperatures to serve wines”
Temperature to Serve Wines
Serving wine at the correct temperature will enhance the properties of the wine. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve this precarious feat if you don’t have the time to manage the bottle. Usually we pick up a bottle of wine the day we want to open it. The bottle may be too warm or too cold when you want to have a glass.
White wine is too cold if it is coming straight from the fridge. The flavours will be closed up. Many people do not like white wine and I believe this is the reason. White wine can be very boring if it is too cold. Take the wine out of the fridge twenty minutes before you want to drink it. This will warm up the wine and open up the flavours.
Red wine should be served just below room temperature. Putting the wine in the fridge twenty minutes before you want a glass should be sufficient. Cooling the wine to 18 C will lift the acidity and add structure to the wine.
Sparkling wine should be served ice cold. Put it in a bucket of ice and open it while cold. This will shrink the bubbles so the wine doesn’t spray out when the cork pops.
Dessert wines should be just chilled down a bit. Once again, you do not want to close off the wine.
It is not always possible to be absolutely right on with wine temperatures. The key is to keep the red wines out of the fridge and the white wines in!
For more information go to www.alsaweb.ca or www.hlkwine.com
Heather Kingston is an International Sommelier Guild, Certified Sommelier working in Edmonton as an educator for the ISG and the Alberta Liquor Store Association.
