Service · degrees, room, glass
At what temperature should you serve the wine at an event?
Red Bordeaux at 16–18 °C, white at 8–10 °C, sparkling at 6–8 °C, sweet wines around 8 °C. But the venue is at 24 °C, and wine warms up in the glass as soon as it is poured: serve two degrees colder than the target. The table below gives the temperature out of the chiller; the calculator gives the time and the ice needed to get there.
The table, room at 24 °C
Guidelines, not instructions to the degree: wine is tasted, not measured. The “out of the chiller” column allows for a warm room, a glass held in the hand and ten minutes between serving and the last sip.
| Wine | Target in the glass | Out of the chiller | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Champagne (crémant on request) | 6 to 8 °C | 5 to 6 °C | The toast comes after the speeches: flutes poured in advance warm up on the tray. Pour at the last moment, with the bottles kept in the tub. |
| Dry white | 8 to 10 °C | 7 to 8 °C | Too cold and it smells of nothing; at 24 °C it warms up fast, so you can start a little low. |
| Rosé | 8 to 10 °C | 7 to 8 °C | The first to run out at drinks: the bottle on the buffet must go back in the tub between rounds. |
| Sweet (Sauternes, Barsac) | About 8 °C | 6 to 7 °C | Served lukewarm with dessert, it tastes heavy and sugary. Cool, it stays lively. |
| Light, young red | 14 to 16 °C | 13 to 14 °C | It copes with, and even likes, ten minutes in the tub. |
| Red Bordeaux for laying down | 16 to 18 °C | 15 to 16 °C | “Room temperature” dates from houses at 17 °C. At 24 °C, a Bordeaux tastes alcoholic and flat. |
Chilling your bottles
Set for 40 bottles of white, rosé and sparkling, the drinks reception for about a hundred guests. With two tubs in parallel, the calculation gives 20 minutes, two batches of 24, 24 kg of ice (twelve 2 kg bags) and 2 kg of coarse salt, one per tub. Change the number, the method or the tubs.
Why serve colder than the target
Wine poured into a 30 cl glass, in a room at 24 °C, held by the stem or the bowl, gains a few degrees in ten minutes. It is an order of magnitude, not a laboratory measurement: the glass, the amount poured and the hand all count. But the consequence is always the same. A white served at 10 °C is drunk at 13; a red served at 18 °C is drunk at 21, and there is no bringing it back.
- Aim for the bottom of the range. The wine will warm up on its own; it will never cool down in the glass.
- Pour little, top up often. 12 cl rather than 15: the glass is drunk before it has warmed up.
- Keep a tub at the bar for everything, reds included. The whites and sparkling stay in it; the reds spend ten minutes in it before being opened.
- Don't store anything in the sun or near the kitchens. A case left behind a picture window in June goes above 30 °C inside.
For the details of the tub, the ice and the salt, the how to chill 50 bottles fast page compares the four methods.
Do you really need to chill red wine?
In a room at 24 °C, yes. A Bordeaux taken from a case that has stayed in the room is at 24 °C, six degrees above its target: the alcohol dominates, the fruit disappears. Ten minutes in the tub of iced water bring it back towards 16 °C. Don't leave it for half an hour: at 12 °C, the tannins harden and you have to wait for it to warm up again.
Is a thermometer useful?
A bottle thermometer costing a few euros is reassuring on the first day, to set the time in the tub. After that, your hand is enough: a white that is ready feels distinctly cold to the touch, a red that is ready feels cool, just. The degrees on this page are working guidelines, not standards.
And outdoors, in high summer?
Everything shifts. At 30 °C under a marquee, wine gains its degrees twice as fast. Serve colder still, in small amounts, and keep the open bottles in an ice bucket on each table or at the bar. The wine for a wedding page places the drinks reception, the meal and the party in the day, with the bottles that go with them.
At what temperature should you serve a Sauternes with dessert?
Around 8 °C, so out of the chiller at about 6 or 7 °C in a warm room. A young Sauternes is served cool; an older Sauternes a little less so, around 10 °C, to let the aromas come out. The Sauternes and Barsac page presents the wines of the appellation.
Does a magnum chill like a bottle?
No, it takes about twice as long, and it warms up more slowly once on the table. That is an advantage in a warm room: a chilled magnum of red holds its temperature through the whole main course.
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