Serving a Wine

Getting the Temperature Right

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Serve at room temperature. Well, that's what you always hear, however at the very least its a bit inaccurate. At worst, if the wine is from a warm room ("it's the room temperature, isn't it?") it can detract from the taste. While it might sound mad to chill a red wine, its actually a very good idea if its too warm.

Why do we bother to chill wine in the first place?

Well, as cool wine warms, vapors rise off the wine. Since your sense of smell is a very big part of what things taste like, getting those vapors into your nose is important. Try drinking a bottle of wine that has been heavily refrigerated. In some ways, it will taste a lot like water, or at least tasteless alcohol. On the other hand, if you serve a little below room temperature, you'll get the benefit of the vaporizing effect. So one rule of thumb is to serve the wine 1 or 2 degrees below room temperature.

But, there is a limit to the warmth. To some extent, you can use the following hints for:

Best red wines; "big" red wines:	14 to 16 °C (59 to 61 °F)
Lesser reds, rose, and "complex" white wines:	10 to 12 °C (50 to 54 °F)
Less complex white wines:	8 to 10 °C (46 to 50 °F)
Sweet white wines, Champagne:	6 to 8 °C (43 to 46 °F)

Now this doesn't mean you need to get out a thermomiter and check exactly! Just clasping your hand round the bottle should give you a good idea of its temperature. If a wine does end up too cold and you are about to serve it, you might as well pour it out, since the best way to warm it up is in the glass. Cup the head of the glass between with your palms and swirl the wine around. This usually warms it up pretty quickly.

Decanting a Wine

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This involves pouring the wine out of the bottle into another container (a "decanter"). There are two main reasons for this, and they can vary depending on the type of wine you are decanting

Removing Sediment

Properly decanting a bottle lets you get rid of sediment. Not all wines have sediment, but old vintage Port does and is always decanted for this reason. Some people will decant through cheesecloth, wire mesh placed in a funnel or even coffee filters. Some wines will say on their label that they are "unfiltered." (See the section on fining and filtering.) If you find that there is sediment in such wine, go ahead and decant, but just because a wine is unfiltered doesn't necessarily mean that there will be sediment.

Alowing a wine to breathe

Decanting lets red wine "breathe". This can serve two purposes

Firstly, decanting allows oxygen to mix with the wine, this is supposed to soften the taste and help develop its bouquet. This works particularly well with strong 'big' wines. For example Australian Shiraz.

Secondly it allows any bad but very volatile chemical compounds in the wine a chance to evaporate ("blow off") so they're not there when you serve it. For example, some young white wines may be have a sulfurous quality which can be removed by spirited decanting.