Storage temperature depends on varietal. Now, don’t be confused. The very important factors to consider regarding wine are serving and storage temperature. Serving temperature is also critical because it determines the flavor and aroma of your wine.
Each wine has its serving temperature, not to forget. This is why having red wine coolers will give you the best feel for your red wines.
As a general serving rule, red wine is to be uncorked 30minutes before serving, while white wine is to be served immediately after removing from the wine fridge. The storage temperature for white wine differs from that of red wines.
Here are a few guides to storing and serving wines:
1. Red Wines
It is a popular misconception that red wines should be served at room temperature. Reds should be served a few degrees below the room temperature. If red wines were served at 25 ⁇ C, the freshness and aroma would be reduced to zero.
It is perfect to leaving your wine in the fridge 20-30 minutes before serving. This means that you don’t have to overstock your wine cooler with reds to achieve this. You can store your wine in a wine cabinet or a cellar while maintaining the storage temperature and catering to the serving and drinking temperature.
It is another rule to serve lighter wines before full-bodied wines. Full-bodied wines like Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Bando have complex tannin structures, unlike light-bodied reds like Pinot noir, Gamay, Grenache, and others.
2. White Wines
White wines can be stored in the fridge long before drinking. You can place your white wines in the wine fridge immediately after buying. After pouring in the first glass, don’t put the bottle on ice. Rather, leave it on the table as it sweats.
Sweating allows the wine to release a new aroma as the temperature rises. If you can control the storing temperature of your white wine cooler or cellar, you may not have to worry too much about storage.
White wines served at less than five °C is a complete no! Unless you are ready to feel the acidity of the wine, don’t ever make this attempt. The serving temperature for light and medium-bodied white wine is 43-50°F.
3. Sparkling wines
There’s nothing much to say about this wine type. But you can place the uncorked bottle of wine after serving on ice till you finish drinking to keep the bubbles from going out. Sparkling wine should be poured on the side of the glass to conserve the bubbles.
If you’ve opened your wine bottle, you can use wine shields, wine bottle stoppers, or wine pumps to preserve the uncorked wine from oxygen.
Conclusion
Wine serving temperature is important to know the temperature of a bottle or glass of wine. Since you want to have your wines with a good flavor, color, and aroma, you should be wary of fluctuations.
Too hot temperatures will reduce the quality by breaking down the wine structure. Too cold will mute the aroma and flavor. Monitoring the storing and serving temperature may be a daunting task, but the wine serving temperature chart is a great answer!