Glory of Wine Tastings and Wine Serving Temperatures

Reading the above title you might be thinking 1. Boring, I'm not interested in his new business or 2. These are two different topics that are not interlinked. Well actually they are linked and I will eventually explain why. So I hope you will read on.

About five weeks ago I had an epiphany of sorts and decided my wine knowledge needed to be put to better use. Writing these blogs is all very well but it's not getting me anywhere closer to retirement. A combination of a number of factors led me to decide that I would start my own business offering private wine tastings in the home as a sideline to my full time job.

And for the last five weeks I have been running around trying to make that happen. Well, I say running around, of course these days most new business start ups are centered around a computer screen and that is where I mostly been when not at work. First a business name, then a business plan, then a logo and some artwork and finally a website. Plus the starting of a new twitter page gloryofwine.

Until I started this I did not realise how difficult constructing a website is and spent two whole days on it. It also made be appreciate how great the Blogger service from Google is as it is so simple to use. But enough about the technicalities you're here to read about wine.

One of the difficulties of taking wine, particularly white wine, to anyones house is controlling the temperature. There is always a worry that it will be too warm to drink unless you buy one of those wine jackets who Vacu Vin seem to have the leading product line in. And obviously this will need to be a consideration for myself once I start taking booked events. But the truth is most people, and I passionately believe in this, serve white wine too cold and red wine too warm.

Wine Temperature Serving Guide

Take a look at the diagram above, which comes from the excellent Bibendum website. Most domestic refrigerators are set to 5˚C as recommended by the Food Standards Agency. And I would bet that most people take their white wine from the fridge and serve it immediately. It's too cold. It will need a little time to warm up to be perfect to drink. Only once the wine is a little warmer, as high as 11˚C for some whites such as classic white Burgundy, will you be able to appreciate the nuances of the wine.

A similar rule applies to red wine. Nearly all homes have their thermostat in their lounge or dining rooms set to 20˚C for comfort, possibly higher. As can be seen above all red wines should be served below that. My father-in-law, has a great saying on this subject. The French serve their red wines "chambre" which we have translated as meaning room temperature which is only partly true. Chambre, of course, means bedroom in French, which traditionally would have been a little cooler.

So just remember to take that fine New Zealand Sauvignon out the fridge 20 minutes before you wish to drink it and leave the Chianti in a slightly cooler room until you need it.

Next time: My very first tasting event of my new business, oh and wine journals.

Enjoy your wine. Until next time. Cheers!

Simon

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Glory of Wine Tastings website