Friday, June 27, 2008

I wanted to ask you, now that I am receiving your wines regularly, when should one slightly chill a red wine. I am told that not all red wines should be served at room temperature. I just received my 12 pack and a couple of the bottles said to serve at room temperature and the others said nothing about how to serve. The whites of course need to be chilled. I purchased a beverage fridge a while back and I am starting to use if for my new wines. It tells you basically where to place the types of wines. Red on top at a minimum etc. Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Joanna
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Most red wines do not appreciate being chilled as it tends to flatten their aromas so it is all a matter of degree (literally!) and your taste buds will ultimately be the judge.
As a rule, young, fresh, fruity, light reds with little extraction (and color) will be better off a bit chilled (like our Beaujolais, Barbera, Gypsy melody, Ventoux…) since they are in a sense closer to the fruit juice. The older guys with more evolved scents, more complex aromas will be fine hardly fresher than room temperature. Now that is tricky because are we talking of Winter or Summer here? In the old days the cellar was probably between 8 and 13 celsius (50 to 60F) and therefore the purpose of "chambrer" a bottle was to bring it to room temperature which, by then, was probably only 16 to 18 C (65-70F) far from our heated houses nowadays! It is interesting to taste a wine at different temperatures as it expresses a variety of aromas that will be released according to their volatility.

hope this helps
Michel