Myth or Not: Serving Red Wines at Room Temperature

I often hear this misconception that red wines should be served at room temperature. Yes, they are the best at ‘room-temperature’, but do note that this is a ‘Westerner’ term. The room temperature in France is not exactly the same than that in Malaysia!

To be specific,the term is used to advice wine drinkers to bring a wine up to room temperature, for serving and not for storing. Let me give you a personal example: back home in France at my parents place, the wines are stored in the garage, in a dark corner. Not the most optimal place but we don’t have a wine fridge. However in my region it rarely gets as hot as it does here. There people complain of it being ‘very hot’ at 25 degrees! In winter (outside temperature will be around 3 to 8 degrees), the bottles are stored at about 10 degrees in the garage.

If we want to open one (or 6!) for dinner, we have to bring it inside a few hours before dinner, to bring it ‘up’ to room-temperature, for better enjoyment. In fact, I would usually open the bottle, and leave it close to ( but not directly in front) of the fireplace to slowly ‘wake’ it up.

Similarly, here in Malaysia, it is recommended that you serve white wines around 8 to 12 degrees and reds at 16 to 20 degrees (which is well below the Malaysian room temperature of 23 to 26 degrees. Too cold and the aromas will be numbed. Too warm (as I often encounter here unfortunately) and the wines won’t be at its optimal enjoyment level. It might be too acidic or the alcohol might be too ‘aggressive’.

For red wines, if you don’t have a wine fridge, I would recommend that you put the bottle in the fridge a couple of hours – it may be a tad too cold when you first take it out. However it will quickly increase and arrive at a perfect temperature of enjoyment! If you really like your wines and want to be sure they are at the perfect temperature, I would highly recommend that you to invest in a good wine storage unit, it is worth it.

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