A wine served too hot or too cold will not be able to express itself fully and you risk missing some of the pleasure of tasting. It is therefore important to serve wine at the temperature that suits it best. And the serving temperature depends on a certain number of criteria: its color, its character, the season and the temperature of the place. We will therefore try to give you some tips to serve your wine at the ideal temperature.
At what temperature should I serve my wine?
Overall, we know that a white wine should be served cooler than a red wine, but the temperature scale is quite mobile. Cold accentuates the acidic and bitter sensation, and will thus bring out the little acidity present in a supple and linear wine, for example. Heat, on the other hand, accentuates the presence of alcohol; a great red wine could then lose its balance if served too hot.
Serve sparkling wines, Champagne and Crémant , very cool: around 6 to 8°C . Vintage Champagnes, on the other hand, will like to stay at room temperature for a few moments to warm up slightly to around 10°C.
For sweet and semi-dry wines , such as an Anjou , a Muscat or even a Riesling , or even sweet wines such as a Loupiac or a Sauternes, serve it between 7 and 10°C . For drier wines, such as a Sancerre, a Graves or even a Savennières, serve it around 10-12°C .
We consider rosé wines like dry whites, that is to say between 10 and 12°C .
Red wines, for their part, should be served less chilled, but once again, the palette is wide. Choose 14°C for young and fresh wines, such as wines from the Loire Valley or Beaujolais ; for Bordeaux and Burgundy wines, focus on a temperature around 16°C . Concerning the grands crus , such as a Côte-Rôtie, a Corton or a Gevrey-Chambertin, we are talking about an even slightly higher temperature, between 17 and 18°C .
Of course, these data are only indicative, one or two degrees more or less will not spoil the majority of wines. It is therefore not necessarily necessary to arm yourself with a thermometer for each opened bottle!
How do I bring my wine to temperature?
To cool a wine quickly without damaging it, the best way is to use an ice bucket : add water to the ice and immerse the bottle as much as possible so that all of the wine is at the same temperature. Allow around fifteen minutes to go from 20°C to 8°C with an ice bucket, while a refrigerator will take almost two hours to achieve the same result. But above all, don't put your bottle in the freezer, it's way too cold there!
To warm a wine, the ideal is to leave the bottle for two to three hours in a room where it is around 18°C. Above all, do not place it near a heat source, such as a fireplace or oven, this could cause the wine to heat up and irreversibly affect its taste. No miracle cure, so for red wine coming out of the cellar, you simply have to give it time to warm up gradually .
Another important detail in wine tasting is its storage, so don't hesitate to take a look at our article outlining our tips for best storing your wine.