To chill or not to chill?
There’s very little that’s more enticing than a delicious glass of chilled wine. But cooling wine can seriously mute aromas and flavours. We could have a science lesson here with formulas and everything, but I think you want to know WHICH wines chill well, not why, so here goes!
Serving wine at the right temperature can be important, but when the weather is actually hot, the temperature of your wine changes as soon as you pour, so keep it simple. Part-fill a container of water and ice, put it on the table and use it as required. To chill a bottle quickly, add plenty of cooking salt - this will chill a bottle from room temperature in about 15 minutes. You can buy a simple wrap-around temperature band or other similar devices for a few pounds if you wish.
Lighter wines chill best, and low alcohol wines like Riesling do especially well. But don’t write off reds! Wines made from Gamay, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Franc are delicious lightly chilled - a great solution if you’re planning a meaty barbeque on a hot day. Sicillian Frappato is even light enough to drink with fish!
Aromas are usually first to suffer when wine is chilled. Luckily there are 'aromatic' white wines worth looking out for. Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Muscat and Viognier you may well have heard of, but there are others such as Torrontes and Gewurztraminer. Good quality examples of these will normally remain enticing on the nose when chilled, and open up as you hold them.
Treat rosé as you would white. Examples range from dry (eg Provence) through off-dry (a touch of sweetness) to sweet (eg American 'white' Zinfandel). The only way to find out which you like most is to knuckle down and try a selection!
The ultimate treat is sparkling wine. High temperatures provide a great opportunity to try some lesser-known sparklers, as Champagne is always expensive! Cava from Spain is usually significantly cheaper than Champagne; Prosecco is widely available (but buying the cheapest bottle can be disappointing); the French make ‘Cremant’ outside the Champagne region (Loire, Alsace, Bourgogne, Bordeaux), and Australia, South Africa and Argentina aren’t obvious choices but make some truly brilliant fizz!
In hot weather, lighter, fruitier sparklers come into their own. Asti, with its distinctive aromas of grapes (oddly not a common aroma in wine!), is also low in alcohol and distinctly sweet. It is perhaps the most ‘lemonadey’ of wines and very refreshing - good job the alcohol is low!
In summary, the 'rules' are different when it's hot - keep ice and water to hand and if the wine isn’t cool enough, pop it back in!
Dave Anning