Wine Serving Temperature

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Claude Kolm

Claude Kolm
As far back as 1977, Kermit Lynch was writing that Burgundy should be served at cellar temperature. (See his "Inspiring Thirst", pp. 20-21.) The balance of acidity and tannin demands a cooler temperature to put all in focus. Nevertheless, restaurants and even people who cellar Burgundy ignore this and serve the wines too warm. I would say 75-80% of the time in restaurants in Paris with excellent wine lists, I still have to ask for an ice bucket to cool the wine (fortunately, never refused). My wife is even more passionate about this than I am.

These days, I find myself serving all manner or reds and whites cooler than I used to. I think this is a function of the ways wines are changing with increasing delicacy, or perhaps I should say precision, of the aromatics and the better acid balance. Others' thoughts?
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:

These days, I find myself serving all manner or reds and whites cooler than I used to. I think this is a function of the ways wines are changing ...
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I might have thought it was because your Paris rooms are probably warmer than they used to be!
 
originally posted by Rahsaan:
originally posted by Claude Kolm:

These days, I find myself serving all manner or reds and whites cooler than I used to. I think this is a function of the ways wines are changing ...
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I might have thought it was because your Paris rooms are probably warmer than they used to be!
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;-) That might be true this coming week in Paris, but I'm currently in SF, where summers are habitually cold and we're having the coldest one in decades (some sources say since the early 1980s, others say since 1961).
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm: Wine Serving Temperature
These days, I find myself serving all manner or reds and whites cooler than I used to.
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I have always served my reds quite cool...preferably no more than ~60 degrees. I often ask for an ice bucket when eating out. In my view, this cooler temperature for reds enhances the fruit showing favorably.

As for the whites, I'm less particular but prefer them warmer than refrigerator temp.

. . . . . Pete
 
I think cooler temps makes alcohol less likely to volatilize. I would also venture to say that cooler temps make jammy/overripe flavors less noticeable.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
I think cooler temps makes alcohol less likely to volatilize. I would also venture to say that cooler temps make jammy/overripe flavors less noticeable.
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Alcohols everywhere were 0.5-1.5%+ lower until the late 1990s than they are today (California and maybe Bordeaux increased alcohols sooner), so that was one reason why serving wines warmer was not such an issue. Acidities may have been lower, too, but people weren't looking for things like freshness and minerality back in the 1980s; in fact, I remember being laughed at when at a tasting group in the late 1980s, I used the word "mineral" to describe one of a wine's characteristics.
 
originally posted by Claude Kolm:
Wine Serving TemperatureAs far back as 1977, Kermit Lynch was writing that Burgundy should be served at cellar temperature. (See his "Inspiring Thirst", pp. 20-21.) The balance of acidity and tannin demands a cooler temperature to put all in focus. Nevertheless, restaurants and even people who cellar Burgundy ignore this and serve the wines too warm. I would say 75-80% of the time in restaurants in Paris with excellent wine lists, I still have to ask for an ice bucket to cool the wine (fortunately, never refused). My wife is even more passionate about this than I am.

These days, I find myself serving all manner or reds and whites cooler than I used to. I think this is a function of the ways wines are changing with increasing delicacy, or perhaps I should say precision, of the aromatics and the better acid balance. Others' thoughts?
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Could not agree more. Restaurants everywhere serve wine too warm. I really struggled with this on my last trip to Paris. It was not even that warm in Paris. In the U.S. Riesling is almost always served too warm. And it is critical that a wine with some small amount of RS is served at the right temperature or it will be out of balance and taste much more sweet than it is.
 
Yeah, include me as an ice bucket requestor. Generally, it seems like staff appreciate it as a sign of someone who actually knows/cares.
 
I don’t eat out much but my experience is that most places serve whites too cold and reds too warm. And since my wife (dinner companion) eats no meat, we usually order white and i eschew the ice bucket.
Which confuses some servers . . .
 
The ideal temperature for most reds is warmer than cellar temperature but cooler than room temperature. I open from the cellar and watch them improve as they warm in the glass.
 
I hate warm red wine. In the summer I see no reason not to serve it from the refrigerator. It will be too cold for a couple of minutes, which is absolutely fine.
 
originally posted by Tom Blach: I hate warm red wine. In the summer I see no reason not to serve it from the refrigerator. It will be too cold for a couple of minutes, which is absolutely fine.
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My strategy is similar. On average, about 45 minutes before dinner, I take the reds from the cellar, decant them if appropriate, and put them in the refrigerator until about 10 minutes before dinner is served (thus, they spend about 20 - 25 minutes in the refrigerator).

. . . . . . Pete
 
I keep my home fridges the mid-50s. I'm with Keith on ideal drinking temp. However, depending on temp in the house, I generally take my reds out around 30 minutes before serving. However, if we're having a heat spell (none so far this Summer, but they'll come), I'm not drinking red wine. Beer or Summer cocktails.
 
I recall Dennis Foley saying that "wine should be served at room temperature, with the presumption that the room is in a castle in Scotland in April."

I've no compunctions about requesting an ice bucket for bottles brought to the table at the room temperature of a John Lautner or Richard Neutra house in Palm Springs in August.

-Eden (and I feel no guilt whatsoever for the pearl-clutching at adjacent lunchtime tables when they spy me adding an ice cube to the tepid white BTG pour)
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:


-Eden (and I feel no guilt whatsoever for the pearl-clutching at adjacent lunchtime tables when they spy me adding an ice cube to the tepid white BTG pour)
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Do it all the time. Mostly in a btg red, which invariably are around 20 deg too warm
 
Yep, I often slip a small cube into a too-warm glass of wine. I've never been glared-at by neightbors, only by table-mates who think I should be snobbier than that.
 
In France these days, if you order a glass of rosé, you will often be asked if you want it "en piscine" (in a swimming pool), which is with an ice cube in it.
 
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Yep, I often slip a small cube into a too-warm glass of wine. I've never been glared-at by neightbors, only by table-mates who think I should be snobbier than that.
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I'm honestly a bit shocked.
 
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