Red wine in winter and white wine in summer? We have taken this false myth to heart: there is no such thing as a seasonal wine!
Just adopt a few simple strategies to drink your favourite red wine with any occasion. Let’s start by clarifying a few things:
- White wine is not easier to digest than red wine because it contains on average more added sulphur dioxide than red wine.
- Red wine in summer is always a great idea… let us tell you why!
Red wine should be served cool during summer
Maybe you didn’t expect this. You’ve always heard red wine should be served at room temperature, haven’t you? The thing is that the expression ‘room temperature’ in oenology does not mean the normal temperature of the surrounding environment, but rather indicates a precise value ranging from 16 to 18°C.
In winter and in the mid-season, the oenological ‘room temperature’ is therefore likely to correspond to the real temperature at home, but in summer – especially in this summer – it can easily reach 30°C. A red wine at such high temperatures can become unpleasant and unbalanced.
We therefore recommend that you serve your red wine chilled: simply place it in a wine cellar or in a bucket with ice and in no time you will have a wine to enjoy at the ideal temperature. If you prefer to chill the bottle in the refrigerator, a couple of hours will be enough to reach the ideal temperature.
Second piece of advice: if the outside temperature is very high, the previously chilled bottle may heat up quickly. We therefore recommend keeping the bottle of red wine in an ice bucket during the meal as well, in order to enjoy it at its best.
The right combinations for surprising effects
As long as we are in the mood to debunk myths, the classic combination of meat = red wine, fish and vegetables = white wine is now definitely out of fashion.
No fear in combining red wines with cold summer dishes. There are in fact many light, fresh, young red wines with moderate alcohol content that are perfect with seafood or cold vegetable dishes.
Also very interesting is the combination of slightly fuller-bodied, intense and fragrant red wines with savoury fish such as eels, grilled octopus, cod or with succulent sauces.
Red wine in summer: which one to choose?
A clarification is in order: not all red wines express themselves best at low temperatures. To understand which ones to choose, take these simple guidelines as a reference and focus on wines that have:
The choices of oenologists Beppe Rattazzo and Matteo Laiolo
There are some red wines which express themselves perfectly in summer. Some classic examples are:
Sparkling red wines such as Barbera, , Bonarda, Grignolino and Freisa
Barbera which should be served chilled, Bonarda, Grignolino and Freisa give great emotions when tasted cold.
“Tasting a wine (wine is tasted, not drunk) means reliving its history, and its history starts from the vineyard and the efforts made to produce the grapes. The best locations are the (so-called) surì, where the most important grape of our territory, Barbera, is located. Working those vineyards means toil, sweat and lots and lots of heat: all the work is done manually during the day. Tasting a good glass of fresh, young and lively Barbera in the summer evening, after the hard work of the day, makes us happy because we relive the path that was taken to get there, and we can finally enjoy the fruit of the hard and long work of all our members”.Â
Beppe Rattazzo e Matteo Laiolo