What’s the best temperature to serve a wine?  The age old response to the question is to serve white wines cold and red wines at room temperature.  But in this case not only is traditional wisdom out of synch with recent university studies, it’s also vague and misleading.  First and foremost, what is room temperature?  Room temperature varies from season to season and locale to locale.  In addition, the term doesn’t take into account modern heating and air conditioning, which greatly alter the temperature of a room.  Moreover, when the conventional wisdom of serving red wine at room temperature came into vague in England and France centuries ago, room temperature was likely 55°- 65° F, if you were lucky.  Not surprisingly, university studies confirm that the vast majority of wine drinkers garner the most flavor and pleasure from red wines consumed between 55°- 65° F, which is decidedly cooler than room temperature in most American homes.  Consequently, the term room temperature is useless to most of us today with central heating and air conditioning.

Conversely, recent studies indicate that wine drinkers report the greatest pleasure and taste from white wines consumed between 45°-55° F, which means we may be cheating ourselves by nearly freezing white wines before rapidly consuming them.  So, what’s a wine drinker to do?  Drink wine at the temperature that suits your palate of course.  Yet, you may want to experiment with some of your favorite red wines by cooling them down for 15-20 minutes in the refrigerator and allowing white wines to sit in a glass for 15 minutes before guzzling them.  Personally, I think most of us consume red wines too warm and white wines too cold.  However, no one else can determine your pleasure quotient.  So, why not experiment a bit, and see what suits you?

Carmenere may not be on the tip of everyone’s tongue, literally and figuratively, but for the life of me I don’t know why.  Granted not everyone likes the same kind of wine.  I get that.  People should drink what they like because no one can drink anyone else’s palate. Yet, the fact remains: I really love good Carmenere, the missing link of Bordeaux varietals that thrives now in Chile like it hasn’t in Bordeaux for well over a century, and I feel the need to spread the word.  Brought to Chile in the 19^th century, before the advent of phylloxera, Chilean Carmenere was mistaken for a clone of Merlot until the 1980s.  It’s hard to believe that one of Bordeaux’s six legal red grape varietals could be misidentified for so long, but the truth is always stranger than fiction.  So, what do I like about Carmenere?  A lot!  First, any decent Carmenere will dazzle the eye because Carmenere yield’s the deepest purple of any grape varietal.  More intriguing is Carmenere’s luscious aroma and savory flavors: rich red fruit and blackberry scents and savors wed to hints of bell pepper, black pepper, dark chocolate and spice. And best of all, Carmenere’s tannins are smoother than those of Cabernet and its other Bordeaux compatriots, making it a pleasure to drink in its youth.  The older I get, the less I want to wait for wines to age.  Lastly, every time I bring a well-made Carmenere to a tasting, it’s a hit, among young and old.  People like it, especially after it’s had a few minutes to breathe.  I never judge a Carmenere on first sip; any good Carmenere will change a dozen times in the glass.  Better to give a good red wine a little time in the glass to collect itself, than have to wait years for it to be ready to drink.  For sure, Carmenere’s not for everyone, but if you haven’t tried one, I suggest you do.  You may find yourself singing its praises to.

A votre santé!