Wine Lessons: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine? (Part 2/2)

LESSON #3: What Is The Correct Temperature For Wine?

FINE TUNING SERVING TEMPERATURE

None of that information will help us much if we don't know anything about the wine that we're about to serve. That's why a sommelier is paid what he/she is paid - usually quite a tidy sum, I'm afraid. When faced with an unfamiliar bottle at home or in a restaurant, remember to taste it first, at the benchmark temperature of 15°C or red, 12°C for white and 5°C for Sparkling. Far too many restaurants make the far too common error of asking them to "taste" a wine at an inappropriate temperature. After that you can decide to adjust the drinking temperature up or down a little depending on the results of the tasting. Let me explain with a couple of examples.

For example, if a red wine imparts too much bitter astringency on your palate, you could warm it up by 2-4°C to make it taste "sweeter". If you find a white wine (or a very old red wine) to taste far too tart for your palate, you can chill it down a bit more to "calm" the acidity but once the fruit flavors start to disappear, you know it's too cold. If you have tried very hard to smell a wine and nothing is coming back, you might warm it up a little increase its vapor.

If you don't have a sommelier following you around all the time to answer your questions about the characteristics of the wines you choose, here are some standard serving temperatures for popular wine styles.

Wine/Style of Wine	Serving Temperature
Champagne esp. Vintage Champagne	5°C
New-world Sparkling, Cava, Prosecco, Sekt	7°C
Lean Whites - Chablis, Chenin Blanc, White Bordeaux, Riesling	9-10°C
Fino Sherry	8°C
Medium Whites and older than 10 yrs - Puligny-Montrachet, Meursault, Cold climate Chardonnay	10°C
Full Whites - Condrieu, Hermitage Blanc, Corton-Charlemagne, Warmer climate whites	12°°C
Coteaux du Layon, Monbazillac, ice wine other med-body sweet dessert wine	7°C
Sauternes, Trockenbeernauslese and rich sweet wines	9°C
Beaujolais Nouveau	10°C
Rosé, Beaujolais Village, light-bodied reds	11°C
Light-bodied and older reds; Beaujolais Cru	12°C
Beaujolais Cru, Dolcetto	13°C
Burgundy Village and older crus	13°C
Young Cote de Nuits and crus	15°C
Burgundy Grand Crus and new-world Pinot Noir	16°C
Gran Reserva and Reserva Rioja	14°C
Medium-bodied and 10-yrd-old reds; Barolo	12 -14°C
Amontillado sherry	14°C
Ordinary Tawny Port	14°C
Full-bodied reds	15°C
Very young reds	17°C
Chianti, Brunello	15°C
Young (5 years) Rioja, new-world reds	16°C
Cognac, Armagnac, Brandy	19°C
LBV and 10-yr-old Tawny	16-18°C
Vintage Port	18-20°C
Zinfandel, Amarone, Red above 15% ABV	17-19°C

Serving temperature is like make-up in a way: it can make a beautiful wine very ordinary and it can cover up a lot of flaws for not-so-perfect wines. When done properly, it simply brings the best out of a good bottle of wine without changing its personality.

Now back to drinking Champagne 10°C warmer than recommended, it is not insanity but slightly masochistic perhaps unless you are doing this to taste the wine behind the bubbles. There is "wine" beneath all the fizz and at the near-freezing temperature that we tend to enjoy our bubblies, the qualities of the white behind that goes into making Champagne are somewhat masked. Once we warm it up to 13 or 15°C, the "wine" starts to emerge. However, Champagne is one of the most "acidic" wines. Low serving temperature is necessary to make it enjoyable. We save a little Champagne to drink warm only to check the quality of its base wine. There'll be more on this subject when we devote one entire lesson on Sparkling wine next week.

Source: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine?