WineLife365

Posts Tagged ‘Serving wine’

What’s the right temperature to serve wine?

A friend of mine recently asked me to address this question.  It’s an excellent question, but one that’s a bit subjective and sort of difficult to answer quickly.  In my opinion, every “varietal” or type of grape has its own optimal serving temperature.  Additionally, your own preference may be to drink all of your wines either warm or chilled. 

If you are anything like me, you stick your white wines in the refrigerator and get them ice cold. The wine experts say that this practice is not the right thing to do because a typical refrigerator temperature is usually in the high 30s or low 40s.  They say that this temperature is too cold for most white wines.  A white wine’s ideal serving temperature should be somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees.  If you chill your white wine in the fridge like I do, just take the bottle out and sit it on the counter for about 15 minutes before serving to let it warm up a bit.

Red wines are a little bit easier. The rule of thumb for red wines is to serve them at about 65 degrees.

The one thing that you definitely want to avoid is serving or storing your wines above 70 degrees.  Anything above 70 degrees will speed up the aging process of the wine. The wine is sort of “cooking” on a slow simmer inside the bottle, thus killing the wine’s aromas and flavors.

My rule of thumb is to serve white wines at about 55 degrees and red wines at about 65 degrees.

I hope that this tip helps!

How many different types of wine glasses does a person need?

The folks that make the fancy glasses like Riedel and Spiegelau have a wine glass for every type of wine imaginable.  But who has storage space for all of those different glasses, and wouldn’t you rather spend your money on wine instead of all of those glasses?!

I say four different shapes should be sufficient for anyone:

1.) A fancy glass for white wines

2.) A fancy glass for red wines

3.) A Champagne glass

4.) A good old all-purpose wine glass

Obviously, it’s up to you to determine how many of each of these you’ll need.  You will need to factor in how often and the size of the group that you typically entertain.

 Cheers!

Just when you thought that you’ve seen every wine gadget there is; a new one comes along. I came across a product that is essentially a thermos.  Oh, but it’s not your typical lunchbox thermos – it’s a “wine thermos”!

The Trek Wine Carafe is a shatterproof steel thermos that is geared for camping, hiking, picnicking, or any other outdoor activity where carrying around a glass bottle can be risky business. The idea of this invention is straight-forward. You just pour your 750ml red or white wine into the thermos, screw the lid on tight, and it will keep your juice safe.  

 The Trek Wine Carafe comes in two finishes: Merlot and Stainless Steel.  This travel size carafe can hold the contents of one 750ml standard wine bottle.

The cost for the Trek Wine Carafe is $24.95

At first glance, I thought that $25 bucks for a stainless steel thermos seemed a bit much. But after checking out what a traditional standard stainless steel lunchbox thermos runs these days; the Trek Wine Carafe is competitively priced.

I also have to admit that I first thought that this product was a tad silly. But, after rethinking its usefulness in particular situations, and the fact that the “flavor savors” of chicken noodle soup and coffee from my old lunchbox thermos would not be churning with my Bordeaux, makes me think that this might be a cool container to have around when hitting the great outdoors. 

The only thing that would make this thermos better would be 2 shatterproof glasses to boot!

 If this is out of your price range, here is another option: