The Right Serving Temperature for Wines – A Must-Know!
At what temperature should you serve your favorite vintages? Have a fuller wine drinking experience by knowing the right temperature to enjoy a certain bottle of wine.
Wine and temperature are a married couple. You cannot enjoy a bottle of Chardonnay without thinking about temperature details. Wine should be stored at the ideal level of coolness, and it should also be served with the right amount of chill. Different types of wines have different serving temperatures. Take your wine tasting experience to the next level by knowing the right temperatures to serve your favorite vintages.
Wine Basics: Storage and Serving Temperature
Reds, whites, and bubbly wines have different serving temperatures. Know at what level of coolness should a glass of wine be enjoyed, so that you can truly experience the richness of its flavor.
Heat is wine’s kryptonite. When stored in a hot environment, the wine will spoil. When served at a temperature higher than the ideal, you won’t be able to enjoy it at its best. A true-blooded wine devotee knows that the best way to have a spectacular wine experience is to store the bottles in a wine cellar and drink them at their recommended serving temperatures.
Keep your wines in a properly built custom cellar with the right kinds of racks that accommodate all of your bottles. Know the different types of racking systems in Phoenix, Arizona. Click the image to find out!
The temperature for storing a bottle of wine is not necessarily the same as the temperature that you need to serve it.
Our taste buds help us enjoy the four basic flavors of wine – sweet, salty, sour, and acidic. But, our tongue cannot sense all the subtle essences in a glass of wine. We need our noses to have a full experience with wine. However, wine does not release its complete spectrum of fragrances and aromas unless it is served at a certain temperature.
The ideal temperature for storing and aging wines is 45 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Serving temperature, on the other hand, varies from one type of wine to another.
A genuine wine lover seeks to enjoy his or her favorite bottles to the fullest. That is why it is not enough for a vino enthusiast to know the storage temperatures of wine. He or she must also know the right serving temperatures of each bottle.
Serving Red Wine
Red wine is best enjoyed at a few degrees below 60 degrees Fahrenheit. To have a fuller drinking experience with your favorite bottle of red, allow it to adjust to room temperature first, before serving.
You shouldn’t serve your guests a glass of red wine immediately after you take the bottle out of your cellar. The best way to enjoy red wine is to allow it to warm down a little bit to room temperature. A warmer environment allows the complex aromas and fragrances to develop so that you can enjoy the wine more. But, how warm is warm?
Room temperatures vary from one location to another. The warmth of a normal day in Canada is very different from the regular room temperature in Arizona. On average, most homes have a room temperature of around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, which is too warm for serving wine. Reds should be served just a few degrees lower than 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
To achieve the perfect balance of warmth and coolness for serving red wine, put the bottle in your refrigerator for around 45 minutes. A quicker fix is to let the bottle chill in an ice bucket for around 10 minutes before pouring it into a glass.
Can’t wait for 45 minutes? If you are in a hurry to drink your favorite red wine, you can simply let the bottle chill in an ice bucket for approximately 10 minutes before opening it.
Temperature to Serve Whites
White wine, unlike red wine, may be served immediately after it is taken out of your cellar.
White wines are best served close to cellar temperature. As soon as you take a bottle out of your wine room, you can pour and drink it immediately. You can also let them rest in an ice bucket for a few minutes before serving because a little rise in the temperature will promote the release of bouquets.
Too warm and a glass of white will taste flat and dull. Too cold and it will have no discernable bouquet, which is necessary to fully appreciate a bottle. Whites are best enjoyed at 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
Serve Sparkling Wines Ice Cold!
When sparkling wines are served ice cold, their bubbles become fine instead of foamy. Before you open a bottle of bubbly, put it in the freezer for about an hour. It’s very important that you don’t leave it there for longer than an hour because the wine will expand to the point where the pressure will break the bottle.
A bottle of champagne, or of any bubbly, should be served ice cold. To best enjoy your favorite bottle of champagne, dip the bottle in an ice bucket for around 30 minutes before serving.
If you need to serve Champagne quicker, and you don’t have enough time to wait for an hour, you can plunge the bottle into an ice bucket for 30 minutes. After you open it and pour a glass, return the bottle to the ice bucket and keep it there until all of the wine is consumed.
Learn more about wines and their storage needs! Click here!
Wine can easily spoil if stored outside the ideal storage temperature. Make sure the quality of your prized collection is protected by having a safe place to keep your bottles. A wine cellar is the most ideal location to store and age wines. Want your own custom cellar constructed? Click here to find out how to build a dependable wine room!
