Friday, January 30, 2009

Room Temperature

I can't believe when in the Australian context advice is given to serve red wine at room temperature. In summer, this means usually 25 degrees or more. This is particularly bad for South Australian wines many of which recently have been very ripe and high in alcohol.

If these wines are served at 18 degrees or so, the structure and texture of the wine becomes much more apparent, the wine tastes less cooked and the flavours are more differentiated.

Therefore, I suggest that if a Shiraz or Cabernet comes from a cooled cellar, it doesn't need too long on the kitchen bench before it is right (decanting and airing for an hour is even better). If the wine is room temperature to start with, half an hour in the fridge and then airing improves your red wine drinking pleasure significantly - and allows to drink full bodied wines in summer.

3 comments:

Baz said...

It's interesting as many people who I serve full bodied red to at 18oC complain it is cold! However, I totally agree you can taste and smell a lot more at such a temperature. Above low 20s'oC I tend to find strong smells of alcohol. Therefore I have my wine fridge set at 15oC, remove wine, decant and serve pretty much straight away.

Alontin said...

Excellent

Alontin said...

Excellent