gavroche
Getting old but not past it
- Location
- North Wales
I hope you don't put red wine in the fridge?
Weekend DIY
- Thread starter Octet
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vernon
Harder than Ronnie Pickering
- Location
- Meanwood, Leeds
Which reds should you chill — and for how long? It’s complicated, but consider their body.
Body refers to the weight and intensity of a wine in your mouth. Generally speaking, big-bodied wine will be full in your mouth and powerful, a light-bodied one will be thinner, less intense. There’s also a correlation with color and opacity; if you hold a light bodied wine up to the light, you can usually see through it.
Chances are, even the bigger-bodied bottles of red you have stored at room temperature would benefit from a quick 45 minutes in the fridge, until they’re slightly cool to the touch. (Some wine experts say you shouldn’t drink any bottle of wine above 65º.)
That said, don’t go overboard, especially with expensive, more nuanced wines; you don’t want to cool down a nice $50 red wine too much, because then you might not experience the flavor subtleties you paid more money for. Unfortunately there’s no hard and fast rule for what to chill and how long. But light-bodied wines can certainly handle a little more time in the fridge — about an hour or so, until the bottle is starting to feel cold. So let’s start there.
Here are some red wines to try chilled, and how.
Chill half of a bottle, and try a pour of that and a pour of the same wine at room temp side by side to experience firsthand how temperature affects your experienceof a wine. Because the most important thing is what you like better.
The key word here is “try.” While some of these wines, like Lambrusco and Beaujolais, are traditionally consumed chilled, not all are. You can even experiment with cooling down a number of other reds not listed here — like Merlot, or a young Spanish Rioja. You can’t guarantee it’ll always be great, but what better way to learn than to try.
And in the meantime, you can say fun, wine-experty things like, “I think this wineshows itself best at a warmer temperature,” or “This wine drinks better a little colder.”
Lambrusco
Lambruscos are very light-bodied sparkling wines made in northeastern Italy of Lambrusco grapes. Supposedly they were first produced by the Etruscans. As you may know, wine results when yeast eats sugary grape juice; if a winemaker stops that fermentation before the yeast are through, there will be sugar left in the wine. Some Lambruscos are sweet (meaning the winemaker has left sugar in the wine itself), some are medium-dry (meaning there’s some sugar in the wine) and some are dry (meaning there’s little to no sugar left in the wine itself).
Why is Lambrusco spritzy? The simplified answer is that the other by-product of fermentation is carbon dioxide. In order to make a sparkling wine like Lambrusco, winemakers first produce a still wine (with no sparkles) and then add more sugar and let the yeast go to town again — what’s called a “secondary fermentation” — this time trapping the gas in the wine.
becoming appreciated by American wine writers and consumers again. It’s as light in color as a cranberry cocktail, isn’t sweet, and is oh-so-refreshing. Just be sure you emphasize to a wineshop owner you want a dryLambrusco.
Beaujolais
Beaujolais is the wine that comes from the Beaujolais region of France. It’s made out of the Gamay grape, which produces some of the lightest-bodied reds out there. There is a general relationship between how big a wine’s body is and how long it needs to be aged in bottle before release. It’s Gamay’s petit personality that enables some Beaujolais to be released as quickly as possible after a harvest as “Beaujolais Nouveau.”
Though some people first heard about it in Sideways, Pinot Noir is one of the world’s most revered wine grapes. It’s the basis of the red wines of Burgundy — one of France’s most iconic regions — and it’s planted lots of other places, including New Zealand, California, and Oregon. It’s lighter bodied and produces famously complex and delicious wines.
Also in northeastern Italy, the Barbera D’Asti region relies upon the Barbera grape, which is the third-most planted grape in Italy. Barbera D’Asti wines have relatively high acid, aren’t tremendously complicated and aren’t usually aged for a long time, which is all good news for chilled drinking.
White Zinfandel is a wine product derived from Zinfandel grapes, loaded with sugars and preservatives, and sold by the likes of Beringer and Franzia. This is not that, making this yet another example of a great wine whose good name has been sullied.
Zinfandel is arguably the flagship red grape of California — for a long time, in fact, people even thought it was native there. (Since genetic testing came about, it’s been discovered it’s the same as a red grape from Italy called Primitivo.) The biggest bodied of the wines on this list by a long shot, Zinfandels are not often consumed cold, nor should they all be.
As with the Pinot Noirs, you can break the bank with Zinfandel — and there’s no need to for these purposes. You want something inexpensive, bright, and jammy. Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley is a great place to source from. Do not judge the Dead Bolt Zinfandel, on the left, by its garish bottle; it was dee-licious cold.
Started and finished a major service on the wife's car including fitting front discs and pads, this afternoon I valeted the inside of it, for somebody that keeps the house nice and clean she sure can make a mess in a car. Full of toe nails, a right tough old job to get out of the seats and carpets.
She is a chiropodist and does some home visits, why she has to take the evidence back in the car I do not know.
She is a chiropodist and does some home visits, why she has to take the evidence back in the car I do not know.
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
Only white wine tonight - Picpoul de Pinet and an Aussie Chardonnay - but (as per @vernon's post) I do sometimes chill red wine in the beer fridge; I quite like Rioja at beer fridge temperature, and Pinot Noir, Barbera and Grenache.
Mrs M
Guru
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
Mr M and myself are hopeless at DIY, apart from painting.
I finished my first ever flower bed today, (when Mr M away golfing)
Looks a bit tragic just now but enjoyed doing it and it'll look better soon.
I finished my first ever flower bed today, (when Mr M away golfing)
Looks a bit tragic just now but enjoyed doing it and it'll look better soon.
ScotiaLass
Guru
- Location
- Middle Earth
Sounds nice!
Supersuperleeds
Legendary Member
- Location
- Leicester
I made a floating boom out of some pipe lagging and old hose pipe for the pond today. That is about as far as my diy skills go.
Why do you want a floating boom?
Lullabelle
Banana
- Location
- Midlands UK
Dave 123
Legendary Member
- Location
- Cambridgeshire alps
Coming to the end of redoing our bedroom which consisted of ripping out a load of 80's fitted wardrobes which was therapeutic!
We have replaced them with free standing stuff from M&S. Not cheap, but cheaper than decent fitted stuff (but it's a few bikes worth)waiting on final wardrobe to be delivered....
Tomorrow it's fitting blinds and painting the spare room.
We have replaced them with free standing stuff from M&S. Not cheap, but cheaper than decent fitted stuff (but it's a few bikes worth)waiting on final wardrobe to be delivered....
Tomorrow it's fitting blinds and painting the spare room.
gavroche
Getting old but not past it
- Location
- North Wales
White wine yes but not red. This chilling red wine must be an American thing and what do they know about food and wine? Same with cheese like camembert and brie, never keep it in the fridge as it stops the maturing process and flavour.
Drago
Legendary Member
- Location
- Suburban Poshshire
I've got a log cabin to assemble.
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
Nope, not an American thing at all.
And I used to be a cheesemonger <no innuendo> and wine merchant so know a thing or 2 about cheese and wine. Mostly how to eat and drink the stuff
