Serving Wine at the Right Temperature
Tasting the Red Wine

After our success with the white wine, and some great swordfish, we took a short break with water before moving on to the red wine tasting, a Cabernet Sauvignon.

Red wines should be served in the low 60F range. Cabernet Sauvignon tends to taste best at around 63F. Since many, many people serve reds at "room temperature", we opened the first bottle at the current temperature in the house, 72F.

At 72, the wine was very alcoholy. There was only a light aroma of flavor, but a very strong alcohol flavor and aroma. It wasn't very enjoyable at all.

Next, we came down to 63F. This was great! Berries, black cherries, currants, oak. It was really amazing how much of a difference that 10F made in the flavor of the wine. This is the wine we finished with our steak after this section of the tasting was done.

We then moved on to a wine at 53F. This would be what a wine chiller would serve the wine at, if you didn't warm it up after removing it. The flavor was now dull, with a sharp overtone which wasn't very pleasant.

When we went down to 45F, it became even worse. There was now no flavor at all, just a sharp taste. We didn't try to bring the wine down any colder.

Stage 1: Choosing the Wines
Stage 2: Determining the Temperatures
Stage 3: Tasting the White Wine
Stage 4: Tasting the Red Wine
Stage 5: The Results

Wine Serving Temperature Guidelines