Can I serve Red Wine Cold?

Of course, you can. There is no law against serving red wine chilled. However, tannins tend to taste bitter as they get cold, so dark red wines will not taste their best if chilled. On the other hand, rosé and white wines, with low levels of tannins, taste great when chilled.

It’s all a matter of taste. Some people like warm beer with cold pizza… 

Wine Descriptions

To get your taste buds to understand the four primary wine descriptors is to make a strong cup of tea. Try it black without adding anything. This is what a very tannic wine tastes like, almost bitter. Now, add a squeeze of lemon juice and you will taste acidity. Combined with the tannic taste, it should taste sharp. Add some sugar for some sweetness. This mellows everything out to make it taste soft.

Popular Types of Wine

Popular Whites

Chardonnay – Fruity, buttery, with a velvety feel that’s atypical to dry white wines.

Pinot Grigio – Simple, light-bodied, dry and crisp.

Riesling – Usually very sweet, with intense fruit flavors. Usually lighter than chardonnay.

Moscato – Fruity, and often sweet.

Sauvignon blanc – Dry and acidic, with herbal flavors as well as tropical fruit.

Popular Reds

Cabernet sauvignon – Full-bodied with herbal notes. Younger cabernet sauvignon has rich flavors of currant.

Merlot – Fruity and spicy. Very soft, less tannic than Cabernet sauvignon.

Pinot noir – Delicate and fresh, very soft tannins with fruity aromas.

Zinfandel – Typically zesty, ranges from medium- to full-bodied and dry to off-dry.

Fun Facts

It takes approximately 440-660 grapes (1.27kg) to make a single (standard size) bottle of wine.  1 vine produces around 10 (standard sized) bottles of wine.

Wine is fat-free and cholesterol-free.

California has more chardonnay grapes than any place in the world.

The wreck of the Titanic holds the oldest wine cellar in the world and despite the wreckage and the depth, the bottles are still intact.

Two new studies have shown that polyphenols in wine (and chocolate!) increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain, boosting cognitive ability.

Putting ice and salt in a bucket will chill white wine or Champagne faster.

The custom of bumping glasses with a “cheers” greeting came from old Rome where they used this method to make sure no one was trying to poison the other (bumping glasses makes the drink spill from one cup to the other).

Since wine tasting is essentially wine smelling, women tend to be better wine tasters because women, particularly of reproductive ages, have a better sense of smell than men.

There is more alcohol in mouthwash than wine

Beaujolais Nouveau is a fruity young red wine that is released for sale each year at the stroke of midnight on the third Thursday of November.

The classic dark green wine bottle was invented by an English scientist named Sir Kenelm Digby, who died in the mid-17th century. Before this, people kept wine in goat skin bags. Lovely.

The average age of a French oak tree used to create wine barrels is 170 years.

During prohibition, grape juice concentrate manufacturers took advantage of the nationwide craving for alcohol and put an ingenious warning sticker on their product, which said “After you mix the concentrate with water, please do not keep the mix in a barrel for 20 days–as it will turn into wine.”

At a blind tasting competition for champagne in Paris, 2003, a man named Richard Juhlin was able to identify the brand, producer, and year of 43 out of 50 different champagnes. The runner up was only able to identify, er, four.