Jeez,it's been hot here in WA and will continue in bursts for a while yet. But I still want a red wine.
So I've been fridging for an hour or so some quaffable reds. Not generally anything pricey and have been using this as an opportunity to clear out a couple of lesser wines in the $20-30 range.
The strange part for me has been my tendency to head for reds, in a climate and environment that screams whites (and probably unwooded). What's wrong with me?
Can anyone enlighten me? Or am I starting a support group
Cheers
Allan
Wine, women and song. Ideally, you can experience all three at once.
Lighter chilled reds (or chiarettos / rosés) can be lovely. It's a style more common in Europe, and they can be super with food in warmer weather. Bardolino immediately jumps to mind, as does Lambrusco. Low tannicity helps, as does good acidity to enhance the freshness (the latter perhaps more of a personal preference).
That is a good question I also wanted to ask. During summer time the ambient temperature is so high that I normally put the red (even its a pricy wine) to the fridge (my wine fridge is full) for half hour before opening. However, the temperature goes back to 2x degrees in the decanter. How do you guys maintain the serving temperature in the decanter? Thanks.
felixp21 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:53 am
as a rule, Aussies drink their whites too cold and their reds too warm.
I so much agree. Most restaurants also serve red wines way too warm, and I sometimes ask for an ice bucket. I get some weird looks occasionally but it works. Meanwhile I will also ask for some ice or use a couple of cubes to cool the first glass. At home over summer both fridge and one or two cubes is normal for me. The difference is quite striking.
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Jeez,it's been hot here in WA and will continue in bursts for a while yet. But I still want a red wine.
So I've been fridging for an hour or so some quaffable reds. Not generally anything pricey and have been using this as an opportunity to clear out a couple of lesser wines in the $20-30 range.
The strange part for me has been my tendency to head for reds, in a climate and environment that screams whites (and probably unwooded). What's wrong with me?
Can anyone enlighten me? Or am I starting a support group
Cheers
Allan
Yes i too suffer from that problem as well.In fact i'm drinking through a bottle of Jaraman shiraz 2022 at the moment.
This problem can be very hard to shake.Buying extra whites may help but whilst in the liquor store those red wines seem to
jump into the trolley by themselves.
But i look at this way your taste buds and nose don't know what time of the year it is.
I drink red wine colder than I should knowing it will heat up in the glass as I live in qld so I think it stays in a good window for longer. I can also stand up a decanter in my wine fridge which really helps too!
Agree on the other point that we generally drink whites too cold and reds too warm.
Smaller, more frequent pours and a not too cold ice-bucket (or one of those chiller sleeves) for the bottle seems a super strategy for avoiding the wine getting too warm in the glass, especially when drinking outside.
I've seen stuff like stone 'ice-cubes', but I doubt anyone is rushing to put them into riedels etc.
Ice cubes in the glass will horrify many here, but I'd not be against it for a high alc% red, although I'd probably prefer a fridge cooled lower alc% lighter red anyway.
It's traditional in Emilia-Romagna (Italy) to have just a single glass for wine & water, intermittently topping up the glass with one or the other. Shocking to a wine hobbyist to encounter it for real (and have someone sloshing water into my wine), but that harkens back to a different mindset for wine that we've all lost sight of.
One of my evening summer reds is a simple beaujolais from the fridge. Let it sit out for 15 min then pour. It does warm up in the glass anyway due to the heat, but it's quite fascinating tasting it evolve in the glass as it warms up.
I normally put reds in the fridge for at least half an hour in summer and in a decanter to keep it from warming too quickly when serving. A block of ice works if I forget ensuring it it removed once desired temperature is reached.
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I also suffer from "red-all-year-roundism". Hot weather in Brisbane does make me want white more often, and I will stay on white for longer, but I usually end up moving to red in the end (or just starting there). It doesn't seem to be about the quality or compexity as whites can be just as good and just as complex, so I guess I just strongly prefer the flavour profile that red wines have?
The various ways people have mentioned of keeping reds at a decent temperature are all familiar to me, but the most effective I find is cranking the aircon down to 22 degrees......
Looks like at least Pete (saturn5519) and I are in your support group Allan!
I regularly ask for an ice bucket for my reds at restaurants. I get some funny looks, but if I'm spending decent money on wine, I want it served at the optimal temperature. There is nothing that turns me off a good restaurant more than seeing stacks of red wine stored on shelves right near a hot kitchen. Surely part of being a decent restaurant is buying a large wine fridge and restocking it every night so the red wine can be served at the correct temperature? It's not like customers regularly pay 300% markup....
I agree with someone above, that in Australia we drink our white wines too cold and our red wines too warm. I guess I am lucky to have a dual temp wine fridge for the drink now wines so I can get them out at the right temp to drink. If I decant the reds, I chuck the decanter in the cellar at 15 degrees for as long as required.
I also live in a hot climate (Gold Coast) and do drink less reds during the 3 months of summer compared to the rest of the year. It also comes down to what we are eating as well. I am not a huge fan of AC, but installed it in our house many years ago, merely so I could drink red wine during the hot weather. It's a necessary evil in our climate.
We are drinking more and more Chardonnay these days. That's just not because of the heat, but the jump in quality of Australian Chardonnay the last 10-15 years. Some amazing wines at not too stupid prices.
If you had to choose between drinking great wine or winning Lotto, which would you choose - Red or White?
felixp21 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2025 10:53 am
as a rule, Aussies drink their whites too cold and their reds too warm.
Like others, I agree with this. Particularly with the whites. I find the general rule that if the bottle feels cool, it is fine, If it feels cold, it is too cold (with the exception of sparkling whites and reds which should be chilled). A wine chiller stick (with pourer) works brilliantly in this regard, it does the job of cooling the wine without dulling the bouquet and palate. An added bonus is that the bottle doesn't "sweat" and feel slippery.
Ian S wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 2:48 am
Ice cubes in the glass will horrify many here, but I'd not be against it for a high alc% red, although I'd probably prefer a fridge cooled lower alc% lighter red anyway.
If you go the ice cubes for wine (or any spirit) I recommend this method as my well-used hack:
Half-fill ice cube trays with sparkling mineral water, and when they are frozen, you will find they fill the whole tray. The other half making up the ice cubes will be CO2 (dry ice) which will vaporize at room temperature. They are cloudy, but the result is that you will get the cooling effect with about half the dilution of a regular water ice cube.
It seems I have struck a chord with this post (a support group? Appreciated). There's some good options here and a couple I hadn't considered.
For me, I realise part of the solution has been right under my nose. I decant the vast majority of reds, so I can just put the decanter in the cellar (16' currently). Having just decanted a red from the cellar (and seen the temperature rise several degrees in the process), the cellar or the fridge seem like good, readily available options.
The ice block solution can therefore be avoided. The defence rests.
Cheers
Allan
Wine, women and song. Ideally, you can experience all three at once.
