Al fresco wine drinking season is upon us and whether that means your own backyard, a friends rooftop, or the local park, those BYOB invites will be flooding in faster than a Real Housewife can crush a glass of Pinot Grigio. If you’re anything like me, your mind immediately goes to bubbles or rose’ as the go-to wine to bring along for an outdoor hang. While there are a plethora of great options within both of those categories, I like to slowly transition into Spring with chilled, light, reds. Much like how people consume food seasonally, many of us drink seasonally. Bold, savory, reds to keep us warm in the winter, and crisp, refreshing, whites to cool us down in the summer. I love a chilled red year round, but find them exceptionally perfect for cusp seasons like early Spring & Autumn. Let’s get you set up to be a trendsetter at your next soiree’ by showing up with a delicious juicy red guaranteed to pop on everyone’s palates.
‘Technically’ the ideal temperatures to serve wines are as follows, but in this wine family we keep it casual so i’ll set you up with some easy tips on how to get your wine to an optimal temperature without needing to consult the Fahrenheit, Celsius or Kelvin scales.
How To Practically Achieve These Temps
Fridge
In the fridge it takes about 2.5 hours for our ‘Light Bodied Reds’ to achieve an ideal temp, and about 3 hours for ‘Light - Medium Bodied Whites’. Keep in mind that the back of the fridge is much cooler than the door, so I tend to lay my bottles down in the back as opposed to the door (which is more exposed).
Freezer
If you’re in a rush, you can put your red in the freezer for 40 minutes, or about an hour for your white.
**Hot tip** - For those last minute invites or guests, wet down a paper towel, squeeze out the excess water, wrap it around your bottle, and put it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. This provides your wine bottle with a perfect make-shift koozie!
Ice Bucket
This is the ideal way to chill wine down and keep it chilled. Always remember to use water to make an ice bath, as submerging the bottle is more effective and speedy than using ice alone. By no means do you need to invest in a specific “Ice Bucket” for wine - last week I used a plastic laundry pod container I pulled out of the recycling bin 🤷♀️
Something that’s important to keep in mind with chilled wines is that you can leave them out of the fridge once you start drinking them. Similarly to how we let wine “open up” or “breathe” by decanting and swirling, by letting chilled wine “thaw” a bit, it opens up and evolves. Experiencing the flavor profile of a wine change as you drink it can be really exciting. Every bottle is a living, breathing thing, and goes on an evolutional, chemistry driven journey once it’s opened and comes in contact with oxygen. When wine is too cold the flavors can be muted, and you won’t be able to experience it’s full potential. If wine gets poured into my glass and it’s too cold, I tend to “cup” the bowl of the glass with both hands to warm it up a bit. Lastly, one thing to avoid is allowing wine to chill down, and then warm back up, and then (goddess forbid) chill back down again lol. This lack of temperature control is jarring for the wine, and will impact the taste.
Chilled Reds
So which bottle of chillable red should I pick up for my next shindig? Well I’ll umbrella this by saying that any “light bodied” red will work - Pinot Noir, Gamay, Zinfandel, Frappato, Nerello Mascalese, young Nebbiolo (aka baby Barolo), and even some Grenache from cooler regions like the Rhône in France. We’re going to focus on two of my favorite regions for chillable reds - Beaujolais and Saumur-Champigny. You may wonder why we’re focusing on regions instead of grapes? This is because we’re going to be talking about French wines, and in France (as well as the majority of Europe) wines are labeled by their region, and not the name of the grape (which is more common in the United States). Beaujolais is a region located below Burgundy and above the Rhône and 99% of red wines from this region are made from the Gamay grape. Saumur-Champigny is located in the middle of the Loire Valley, along the Loire River, and their red wine is mostly made from Cabernet Franc grapes. You can ask your local wine shop for a ‘Beaujolais’ or a “Cab Franc from the Loire’, and if you’re looking at labels ‘Beaujolais’ and ‘Saumur-Champigny Rogue’ are good key words to keep an eye out for. For my paid subscribing tribe, let’s take a deep dive -
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Modern Wine to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.