Wine Lessons: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine? (Part 1/2)

LESSON #3: What Is The Correct Temperature For Wine? (Part 1/2)

Is serving red wine at room temperature just a cute way of asking what's the right temperature for wine to get drunk?

IS DRINKING a glass of fine Champagne at 15°C room temperature really insane? That depends whether you know what you're doing and more importantly why you are doing it. We'll get to that later. First, let's cover some less controversial grounds about wine serving temperatures.

Everybody knows that "serving red wine at room temperature" is a grossly generalized answer to a complex question of "at what is the right temperature for wine to be drunk?"

Complex, yes but difficult to understand, it certainly is not once. All we need to do is to look into how temperature can alter the effect of wine have on our palates.

The temperature-sensitive aspects of wine include alcohol, tannin, acidity and body. Here is a table showing their how temperature's effect on wine-palate interactions:

TEMPERATURE EFFECT WINE APPRECIATION

Taste	********** Serving Temperature **********
Aspects	Higher	Lower
Tannin	Round, supple	Bitter, harsh
Acidity	Volatile, tart	Milder, flat
Alcohol	Less pronounced	more prominent, hot
Body	Lighter	Full or heavy
Aromas	More intense but dissipates quicker	Subdued but persistent
Flavors	Exaggerated	Less intense

Admitted it is slightly oversimplified but this table handles 90% of the situation that the average wine connoisseur will encounter most of the time. I don't know about you but for me, memorizing anything more is a lost cause.

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Source: What Is The Correct Serving Temperature For Wine?