Frozen White and Hot Reds

What's the correct temperature for wine?

Here in the U.S., we tend to drink our white wines too cold and our red wines too warm.

Restaurants are usually the worst offenders. White wines are stored in a beverage case at 45-48 degrees, cold enough to induce permafrost. When they are removed from storage and taken to the table, the customer is likely to request an ice bucket as well. Few restaurants have proper wine storage, so reds tend to be served closer to 75. I’ve been in chain restaurants where cases of wine were actually stacked in the kitchen, above the stoves.

You may wonder what the fuss is about—don’t consumers have the right to drink wine at any temperature they please? Extreme cold saps whites of any aromatic and/or flavor qualities. Many reds today are too alcoholic to begin with, bottled at 14-16% rather than the standard 12.5% of yesteryear. High temperatures exaggerate the effect of alcohol and tannin, making the wine even more disjointed and unbalanced.

Much confusion arises from the old adage that wine should be consumed at “room temperature.” Historically this referred to European room temperature, or around 65. If you have correct wine storage at home, your wine will be kept at 55— a perfect temperature for many whites. For reds, simply allow the wine to warm up to 65. For those who lack wine storage, the twenty-minute rule is a good fallback position: remove whites from the fridge 20 minutes before serving, and chill reds for half that time. Failing that, invest in a wine thermometer; you can get the traditional type which you insert into an open bottle, or (better yet) a bracelet that attaches to the intact bottle and displays the temperature.

In restaurants, the scenario is a bit trickier, but don’t hesitate to request that a bottle of white wine be placed on the table. Many consumers don’t feel comfortable requesting that a red wine be submerged in an ice bucket, but it’s your wine, after all—you may mix it with tomato juice if you desire, although I recommend doing that at home. Remember that the server isn’t the one who’ll be spending a pile of money on an alcoholic, unpleasant red. In many restaurants, wine storage is visible to people sitting in the dining room, and a quick look around may determine whether your red wine is being correctly aged or cooked along with the broccoli.

What about those wine sleeves, the metal chillers designed to be placed on the table? The problem is that they do exactly what they’re supposed to do—keep the wine cold, particularly if stored in a beverage case before use. Once upon a time, I oversaw the wine program at a restaurant heavy on New World Chardonnay. We used room-temperature “chillers” made of Lucite, which were perfect because they didn’t work and allowed the wine to thaw out. Sometimes a little subterfuge is useful.

Delivering wine to customers at the correct temperature is easiest to accomplish in an old-fashioned, formal setting, where the bottle is opened on a cart and stored away from the table. This allows sommeliers to monitor the bottle throughout service. Opening the bottle at the table creates the likelihood of dialogue, and the inevitable request to put a white into an ice bucket or leave the overheated red visible and within reach. Not surprisingly, the French have it right: limited customer contact frequently allows for better service. In the current era of the gastropub, the chain restaurant and the fast-casual establishment, it’s difficult to find a place that offers formal wine service (not to mention how expensive it tends to be). So educate the server if you have to, and keep the can of tomato juice in your pocket.