The Right Temperature for Red Wine (It's Cooler Than You Think)

Pour a glass of red that has spent a July afternoon on the kitchen counter, and the first thing you notice is heat. The alcohol arrives ahead of the fruit, and the wine feels heavy and a little dull. Nothing is wrong with the bottle. It is simply too warm.

Most red wine is served warmer than it should be, and a familiar phrase is to blame.

Why "room temperature" misleads

The old advice was to serve red wine chambré, a French term built on chambre, the word for room. As The Wine Society points out, the advice dates from the days before central heating, and a heated room is a different thing. Wine Spectator's Dr. Vinny puts reds at their best around 60 to 65°F (16 to 18°C) and observes that most rooms run well above 60°F, which leaves many reds warmer than ideal.

So for red wine, aim several degrees below a comfortable room. The gap sounds small, but it is enough to change how the wine smells and feels.

What warmth and cold do

Warmth is not the enemy. Aroma compounds are volatile, and as The Wine Society notes, a wine's scent opens up as it warms. Past a point, though, the balance tips. Writing in Decanter, Clive Pursehouse explains that too much warmth accentuates a red's alcohol, giving it a "hot" feel, and subdues the freshness and acidity that balance its weight. The result is the soupy red many of us have met. The Wine Society adds that a wine's flaws also tend to show more when it is warm.

Cold works the other way. It suppresses aroma and flavor and accentuates acidity, bitterness and tannin, so an over-chilled red can taste thin, sharp and astringent.

Research bears this out. In a Washington State University study, sensory analyst Carolyn Ross had 12 panelists taste six Washington Lemberger wines at 50°F, 60.8°F and 71.6°F (10, 16 and 22°C). Compared with the warmest samples, the wines served at the two cooler temperatures struck tasters as more sour, bitter and astringent, and lower in aroma. Warmth, in other words, buys aroma. The skill lies in stopping before it starts to cost freshness, which is why most guidance lands a few degrees below a warm room.

A guide by style

These ranges, drawn from Decanter and The Wine Society, are starting points rather than rules.

• Light-bodied reds, such as Pinot Noir and Gamay from Beaujolais: 54 to 56°F (12 to 13°C), and some can go as cool as 50°F (10°C).
• Medium-bodied reds, including many Sangiovese-based wines such as Chianti: 57 to 61°F (14 to 16°C). Fuller styles of Pinot Noir and some Rioja belong here too.
• Full-bodied reds, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah: 61 to 64°F (16 to 18°C), and no warmer.
• Whites: 41 to 50°F (5 to 10°C) for light, crisp styles, and 50 to 57°F (10 to 14°C) for fuller, barrel-aged ones.
• Rosé: lighter styles well chilled, like crisp whites; fuller ones cool rather than cold.
• Sparkling wine: 41 to 50°F (5 to 10°C), cold enough to keep the bubbles lively, since carbon dioxide escapes more easily from warmer wine.

Sangiovese deserves a word, because it shows why the middle band matters. It is a high-acid grape with relatively high tannins, and cold exaggerates both. Served too warm, it loses the freshness its acidity provides. Cool, not cold, is the aim.

Whites, meanwhile, often have the opposite problem. A kitchen refrigerator runs at around 35 to 40°F (2 to 4°C), which Dr. Vinny considers too cold for white wine, so a bottle taken straight from the fridge may want a little time on the table before it shows its best.

Getting there

You don't need a thermometer. For a red that has been sitting in a warm room, 15 to 20 minutes in the refrigerator will bring it back toward balance. Decanter suggests 10 to 20 minutes in the fridge or an ice bucket, and The Wine Society gives light reds about half an hour in the fridge.

An ice bucket works faster, provided it holds water as well as ice. Ice alone touches the bottle in only a few places, while icy water surrounds it. Even a few minutes makes a difference, which is worth remembering in a restaurant, where you can ask for an ice bucket for a red as readily as for a white. At home, the same bucket keeps an open bottle of white or sparkling wine cold at the table.

Aim a little low. Wine warms quickly in the glass: the sommelier Xavier Rousset told Decanter that a Bordeaux poured at 64°F (18°C) can reach 72°F (22°C) or more very quickly, depending on the room. A red that is slightly too cool is the easier problem, since you can cup the bowl in your hands and it will soon come up. As for the glass itself, choose one with a stem and room to swirl, and hold it by the stem, since your hand would otherwise warm the wine through the bowl.

None of this needs to be exact. The habit worth keeping is simple: give red wine a little chill before you pour, and let the glass do the rest.