it is time to forget what you thought you knew about red wine and summer.
In some social circles, chilling your red wine (or worse still, icing a flabby one better kept at room temperature) is a straightforward faux pas. It’s just not done. Snobbier, more traditional drinkers might scoff at the notion of putting a bottle of red in the fridge.
Yet how many barbecues have you been to where the white soon bores you and the rosé is too sweet to sip? Only the subtle qualities of a red wine will do. But why would anybody want a dark red wine, full of heavy tannins? That’s more winter fireside than summer grill.
Well, yes, not all reds suit cooling. You know that. The point is: there are plenty that do. There’s Beaujolais, as well as the lighter, fruitier numbers from regions such as Burgundy and the Loire, all of which are agreeable — and often better — after a degree of refrigeration.
For the nervous wine snobs who need convincing: look to the French. They call the practice servir frais, or “serve fresh,” and raise no eyebrows at the appearance of a chilled red at the table.
Today even vintners in Bordeaux, known for the most old-fashioned of wines, are starting to espouse the idea. A new range of red wines from the region are for the first time being sold chilled. At the Bordeaux Wine Festival, a local paper went so far as to say: “From now on, le rouge has its place in the fridge, from 30 minutes to an hour before opening the bottle… The notion of room or ambient temperature has lost its meaning.”
And so there’s no need to look beyond an endlessly juicy summer red this summer, one that brings refinement and sophistication. Because it’s cold it’s not far off a crisp pint of lager or an refreshing rum and Coke either.
What’s causing the red shift? Is it the fact that the world seems to be incessantly warming, so in these hotter temperatures maximum refreshment is par for the cause? Hard to say. But it is certain those classically chilled reds such as Pinot Noir and Grenache are being joined by new (well, old) kids on the block. Be delighted if you sit down for dinner only to find all manner of guests plonk ice cubes in something almost full-bodied. Because the fact is, chilled reds are just so hot right now.
