The common mistake
Most red wine gets served too warm, and most white wine too cold. Both hide the flavour you paid for.
Temperature changes how a wine tastes more than people expect. Too warm, and a red tastes soft, flabby and boozy, because the alcohol jumps out of the glass. Too cold, and a white goes quiet: the aromas that make it interesting barely leave the glass.
"Room temperature" isn't what it used to be
The old advice to serve reds "at room temperature" comes from houses that were far cooler than ours, long before central heating. In a modern living room at 21 or 22°C, a red tastes soft and boozy.
Whites have the opposite problem. A fridge runs at about 4 to 5°C, which is so cold that the flavour hides.
The temperatures to aim for
| Wine | Serve at about |
|---|---|
| Sparkling (Champagne, Prosecco, Cava) | 6 to 8°C (43 to 46°F) |
| Light whites and rosé | 8 to 10°C (46 to 50°F) |
| Fuller whites, like oaked Chardonnay | 10 to 12°C (50 to 54°F) |
| Light reds, like Pinot Noir or Beaujolais | 12 to 14°C (54 to 57°F) |
| Most other reds | 14 to 18°C (57 to 64°F) |
The rule of thumb: the lighter the wine, the cooler it goes. You don't need a thermometer. "A little cool to the touch" for a red and "cold but not icy" for a white gets you there.
Sparkling wine goes coldest
Sparkling wine is the one wine that can come almost straight from the fridge. Cold keeps the bubbles fine and the wine fresh. Warm fizz is a mess: carbon dioxide stays dissolved less well when it's warm, so the bottle foams over when you open it and the wine goes flat sooner.
The 20-minute swap
Here's the one move worth remembering. Dinner is in 20 minutes, the red is on the kitchen counter and the white is in the fridge:
- Put the red in the fridge. Twenty minutes takes it from a warm room down into its zone.
- Take the white out. Twenty minutes on the counter lets it warm up a few degrees, enough for the flavour to come back.
It costs you nothing, and both bottles end up close to right.
Forgot? Use ice and water
If you only remember at the last minute, use an ice bucket filled with ice and water, not just ice. Water touches the whole surface of the bottle, so it chills far faster than ice cubes alone. A red cools by several degrees in about five minutes this way. Add a handful of salt and it goes faster still.
Questions people ask
Should red wine be chilled?
A little, yes, in most homes. Most reds taste best at about 14 to 18°C, cooler than a typical living room. Twenty minutes in the fridge before serving usually does it. Light reds like Pinot Noir and Beaujolais can go a bit cooler still.
How long should white wine be out of the fridge before serving?
About 15 to 20 minutes for most whites. Straight from the fridge they are around 4 to 5°C, which mutes the flavour; a short rest brings them up to about 8 to 12°C.
What is the fastest way to chill wine?
An ice bucket with ice and water, covering as much of the bottle as possible. It is much faster than the fridge door or a bucket of ice alone. The freezer works too, but set a timer so the bottle doesn't freeze.
