Serving it Right

Posted August 20th, 2008 04:08 by John Szabo

I am often nervous about ordering wine in a restaurant during the summertime, particularly red wines. I see the open bottles sitting on the bar, or full bottles languishing above, on shelves or in wine racks without temperature control. A quick check of the thermometer in my back pocket reads 23ºC, or even higher. A few feet up near the ceiling and it’s probably closer to 25ºC. I’m sure I needn’t reiterate the temperatures at which wines show their best, but how often has the waiter brought over a young fruity Barbera at ‘room temperature’. i.e. 25ºC? At this temperature the wine tastes of alcohol and not much else, with an unpleasant burning sensation decreasing the enjoyment even further.

It is important to remember just how significant an impact temperature has on the perception of things we eat and drink. Chefs in the kitchen are aware that any dish such as a terrine or soup that will be served cold needs to be slightly more salted than the same dish served hot, as our perception of salt decreases at lower temperatures, or at least our tolerance increases. The interplay between temperature and sensory perception may occur by many mechanisms, including the direct action of temperature on sensory receptors. In any case, it has been studied and shown that our taste receptors are modulated by temperature change. 1 Translation: the same things taste different at different temperatures. Therefore we need to consider the effects, both positive and negative, of the service temperature on wine.

I am not likely to drink down that Barbera at 25ºC with pleasure, or very quickly for that matter. More likely it will sit on the table getting warmer still as I dread the next fiery alcoholic bite. This spells lost revenue for your establishment, because otherwise, I would be drinking. My own personal and professional, albeit anecdotal evidence shows quite clearly that people drink more wine, especially on a hot day if it is served at the right temperature, meaning cold for whites and cool for reds. Even the most full-bodied reds look much smarter at 18ºC than 22ºC, and light bodied reds may as well be served straight out of the fridge – better too cool than too warm I think.

The principal reason that red wines have traditionally been served warmer than whites is that they contain tannin, while whites rarely have any tannin at all. The curious thing about tannin is that we perceive its effect more – that mouth-puckering, drying, astringent sensation – at lower temperatures. That means if you take the same tannic wine and serve it at 10º and 18º, the cooler sample will appear much more astringent, perhaps unpleasantly so. At 18º the wine will still be tannic, but much more tolerable; then decanted and served with a little protein, and the tannins may not be a significant factor at all. As white wine doesn’t contain tannin, it can be served chilled without the fear of creating that astringent sensation. The lower temperature lessens the unpleasant sensation of alcohol and heightens the positive aspects of aroma and flavour, predominantly fruit. But there are many reds with naturally low tannin such as Gamay, Pinot Noir, Tempranillo and Barbera that can also be served chilled for the same benefits. The same is true of any other red variety that has been made with minimal tannin extraction. As the majority of wines produced today are intended for immediate consumption, that is with little tannin that would otherwise take years to soften, just about everything should served lightly chilled, especially in the summer.

You’ll want to avoid serving wines too cold, at which point many of the attractive volatile aromas are bound up, but at least it will warm up in the glass and evolve. A wine served too warm has no remedy other than an ice cube, which is hardly ideal.

How to do it:
A couple of hours in the fridge is sufficient to bring down whites to the correct temperature. Reds will benefit from 20-30 minutes to bring them down to about 14ºC. You can then maintain the temperature of the bottle using a simple ceramic, stainless steel or acrylic coolers, the kind that requires no ice or water. Note that these are useful only for maintaining temperature – they will not actually chill down wine. For your lighter whites that are really best right out of the fridge, you’ll need to maintain temperature Otherwise pour and return to the fridge in between refills.

If you didn’t get it organized ahead of time, the fastest way to cool a bottle is in a bucket of water and ice, about half and half. Ice alone with its air pockets is far less effective at chilling; water is a far more efficient conductor. Base your chilling time on approximately 2 minutes in the bucket to drop the temperature by 1ºC. So if your wine is at 22ºC, count on about 12 minutes to bring it down to 16ºC (about right for a light-medium-bodied red). Another solution is to buy yourself a device called the RAVI Instant Chiller, a rather ingenious little device designed to chill wine on the spot. The RAVI is kept in your freezer; when needed it is brought out and affixed to the top of a bottle of wine. The wine is then poured through a cooling coil in the device and, depending on the speed of pouring, will lower the temperature to the desired range almost instantly. Handy if you forgot to plan ahead….For more details check out: http://ravisolution.com/.

One last important point: don’t forget to store unfinished bottles of wine, red or white, in the fridge. They won’t spoil as rapidly – remember, all reactions, including oxidation, occur more quickly at higher temperatures.

Recommended serving temperatures:

ºC Wine style
18 Full bodied red wines, Vintage port
17 Tawny port
15-16 Medium bodied red wines
14 Amontillado sherry
13-15 Light bodied red wines
12 Full bodied white wines
8-10 Medium bodied white wines
7-9 Rosé, Light bodied white wines, Dessert wines
9 Vintage sparkling
6-8 Fino sherry
6-7 Non vintage sparkling

1. DEG/ENaC ion channels involved in sensory transduction are modulated by cold temperature
Candice C. Askwith*,dagger ,Dagger , Christopher J. Benson*, Michael J. Welsh*,dagger ,Dagger , and Peter M. Snyder*,dagger ,§

Departments of * Internal Medicine and dagger Physiology and Biophysics and Dagger Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, IA 52242

Contributed by Michael J. Welsh, March 28, 2001

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