LOOK COOL, DRINK COOL AND BE COOL THIS SUMMER
Where are you with ice cubes in your wine? That’s right, we said ice cubes, folks, because it is hot outside, and inside. Summer is finally full-on in British Columbia, and it’s the No. 1 wine killer when dining out shifts from highpriced wine lists to high-priced wine served too warm, especially red wines.
In the stodgy, slow-moving wine business, it often takes an earthquake-like moment to change minds. The big shaker came early in the year when pop icon Taylor Swift in her acclaimed Netflix documentary Miss Americana was seen cooking and drinking wine with her longtime friend Abigail Anderson Lucier complete with ice cubes in their wine glasses.
It was instant validation, like an original Robert Parker 100-point wine, only this time the audience was in the millions. Of course, it was always OK with street-smart wine folks who would say “drink any wine you like, anywhere you want to, with any food you enjoy.” Still, then there are the rules and conventions so staunchly propagated by the wine trade that makes you feel uneasy about change and downright creepy about ice cubes in your wine glass.
Scorching hot patios and warm storage demand chilled wine to release a little freshness and
frankly some thirst-quenching qualities, in the same way beer drinkers would never consider drinking warm beer in a hot summer setting.
The wine temperature baggage begins with the adage about serving wine at room temperature. The problem is that room temperature was always in a northern European stone house with no central heating before global warming. In that environment, white wine can be served directly from the cellar, and the reds often need to warm up a bit. That doesn’t apply to 95 per cent
of wine-serving scenarios during the summer anywhere, and given the level and cost of wine education out there, it’s hard to believe it still happens.
Today we offer some tips that will work on warm summer days, including which wines work best in summer and how to get them to the correct temperature. It is forethought that turns an ordinary day on the patio into a great afternoon or evening. Forget the big wines of winter and go for the fresh, aromatic, dry whites, rosé and unoaked Chardonnay. The Grüner Veltliners, floral Rieslings