Red wine vs White wine

Wine serving temperature

For most beginners, we tend to drink our white wines too cold and our reds too warm. The best serving temperature for red wines is around 15°- 18°C (cool room temperature). As for white wines, temperature of around 8°– 12°C (moderately chilled) is best.

Serving a wine too cold suppresses its fruit flavour and exaggerates oak character and tannin. Serving it too warm exaggerates alcohol but softens tannin – the stuff that causes red wine to a have a puckering effect in the mouth.

White wines are usually served chilled because at warmer temperatures they quickly lose their volatile characters and become flat and tasteless. Blush wines are also served chilled like white wines.

Red wines, which usually contain more flavour and aroma components than white wines, are served at room temperature to release the aroma characters, and the wine smells and tastes better than it would if it were chilled.

“Good wine ruins the purse. Bad wine ruins the stomach”