Oh, the fickle ice bucket, lurking inconspicuously in the dining room corner. It can strip the life out of a brazen white wine or just as easily revive a simmering red.
No wine, however noble or well-made, can survive being served at the wrong temperature. On being plunged in freezing water, the showiest Chardonnay will recoil in horror and refuse to show a hint of flavor. The best-bred Bordeaux, sweating in the heat of summer, forgets its manners and lashes out with alcohol and astringency.
Yet bottle after bottle, in restaurants and at home, is diminished by being served at the wrong temperature. Consumers balk at steep wine prices--and then choke the life out of their new purchase. Talk about lack of value!
The wine industry is guilty of not having educated consumers in this area and, as a result, many people are settling for a fraction of what their favorite bottlings have to offer. The good news is that this is a relatively easy puzzle to solve. Although there are no hard and fast rules, some useful guidelines can go a long way toward maximizing your enjoyment of your Montrachet or Margaux.
The guideline for serving temperatures has historically been chambre, or room temperature. Should wine be served below, above or just at room temperature? What constitutes room temperature? When the term was devised, in pre-central heating days, it is unlikely that the temperature in homes got much above 50 degrees. Today 70 to 80 degrees is the norm. Thus, any bottle at room temperature is far too warm, so the term has become obsolete.
So what is a reliable starting point? Central Coast winemaker Bryan Babcock says that if you want to simplify things, a perfect default point is at 60 degrees. "If everything was served at that temperature, it would be a pretty good deals" he assures. And, in fact, you would never be too far off with that approach. However, a bit of micro-management can make the difference between a good and a great bottle of wine.
To set the stage, lighter-bodied, more perfumed wines can generally take a heavier chill. As the body and volume increase, so can the temperature.
Our sense of smell is susceptible only to vapors. Temperature dictates, to a great extent, when the flavor compounds in a wine will volatilize, dancing out of the wine and onto your palate.
