Reds for chilling
If there’s only so much crisp, dry white you can take when the weather turns warm, fear not – it’s okay to chill a red from time to time. Matt Walls explains why and how, recommending 25 cool candidates
Yes you can! Matt Walls offers advice on how to cool down reds in the summer heat, and picks 25 ideally suited wines
IS IT ME, or does eating strawberries on a grey winter’s day feel a bit wrong? Seasonality has been embraced by restaurants and home cooks alike; and there’s no denying the superiority of local produce that’s freshly picked.
Wine isn’t as strictly seasonal, but I’m sure most wine lovers get the difference between a ‘fireside red’ and a ‘picnic red’. When it’s cold outside I want something warming, velvety and luxurious. In warm weather, I instinctively reach for a red that’s juicy, crisp and refreshing – and lightly chilled.
Most reds taste their best when cool, but some red varieties and styles take better to chilling than others.
Chilling whites is straightforward enough; getting reds to the right temperature isn’t quite so easy, but there are several methods to try. And it’s worth it – much is made of
decanting and glassware, but when it comes to serving your reds, getting the temperature right is also crucial.
Don’t sweat it
Which red wines are best served cool? That’s easy – all of them. The myth that red wines should be drunk at room temperature comes from the old French verb chambrer – to bring something up to room temperature. But this was before the advent of central heating, and was indicative of a temperature rather lower than the 20°C that is typical today.
Christopher Delalonde MS is beverage manager at London’s Bleeding Heart restaurant group, and he has noticed: ‘Some people like their wines chambrŽ, but not so much now. “Room temperature” in the 21st century – what does that mean anyway? At 9am or at 10pm? It doesn’t mean anything.’
Many years ago, (cooler) room temperatures coincided with drinking temperature. Now it doesn’t, so we need to serve wine differently. For a red wine, much warmer than 18°C is too high; its flavours become blurred and soupy, its structure softens and alcohol becomes more noticeable. Chill it down slightly and flavours come into focus, alcohol becomes less apparent, structure tightens up and the wine is more refreshing to drink. But take care not to chill red wine too far. Much below 12°C and aromas and flavours become muted, tannins take on an astringent quality and the wine can feel unpleasantly tight.
What works, what doesn’t
Though all reds appreciate a little chilling, some benefit more than others. Laurent Richet MS is head sommelier at Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham. As a rule, he keeps his service
fridges for red wines at 16°C, but some reds such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape he prefers to serve at around 18°C because ‘it’s more full-bodied and has more alcohol’.
‘If it’s a hot day,’ Richet continues, ‘I go for a lighter-bodied wine that’s easy to enjoy cooler, say 10°C-12°C – Blaufränkisch, German Pinot Noir, Valpolicella chilled would be absolutely beautiful. Try a Morellino di Scansano on a hot day with a barbecue.’ He also suggests fruitier styles of New World wines.
Delalonde suggests Barbera, Bobal, Cabernet Franc, Dolcetto, Gamay, Garnacha, Pinot Noir or Syrah as ‘varieties you can chill down that will still provide fruit and juice without locking the tannic structure’. He adds: ‘Sangiovese also works as long as it’s not too oaked.’ To this list, I would add Cinsault, Lagrein, Mencía, Poulsard and Zweigelt, though there are countless other lesser-known grapes that would also fit the bill: Agiorgitiko, Frappato, Grolleau, Refosco...
‘If there’s a link,’ says Delalonde, ‘it’s the crunchy acidity that maintains the freshness.’ Often, these red grapes produce wines that
rely on bright acidity for structure more than tannic heft. But more than the grape variety per se, it’s the style of wine that counts when it comes to choosing a warm-weather red for chilling. A good rule of thumb is to choose a young wine with juicy fruit, crisp tannins and vibrant acidity.
Low alcohol is another welcome attribute in wines designed to quench your thirst. Alex Dale is founder and co-owner of Radford Dale in Stellenbosch, South Africa. He makes two red wines under the Thirst label: a Gamay at 11% alcohol and a Cinsault at just 10%. When making reds that are good to chill, he says: ‘You need to start with the purest fruit quality possible with lighter red varieties such as Cinsault, Gamay and Pinot Noir. Picked at lower sugar levels, naturally fermented – including carbonic maceration – and free of oaking, you have all you need for making refreshing red wines.
‘With naturally higher acidity, daintier fruit and more elegant tannins, they also have lower alcohol levels as a bonus.’
Conversely, some wines don’t take well to chilling. Oaky wines with big tannic frames, such as Bordeaux blends, Amarone and Brunello, don’t work as well – their structure becomes too dominant and assertive. Older wines also perform better at the warmer end of the scale due to their more savoury, complex aromatics. As Dale puts it: ‘Extracted, tannic, oaky and high alcohol reds are not refreshing, at whatever temperature you serve them.’
‘With lighter red varieties you need to start with the purest fruit quality possible’ Alex Dale, Radford Dale
Set the temperature
Restaurants that take their wine service seriously should have fridges to keep their reds at the right temperature. If they don’t, you’ll have to request an ice bucket. Small domestic wine fridges can be bought for less than £500, and are a worthwhile investment if you’re serious about getting maximum enjoyment from your red wines at home. But if you don’t have one, there are plenty of other methods.
Ice buckets are messy, bulky to store and you need lots of ice readily available. A better option is the kind of chillable sleeve that you can store in the fridge or freezer and fits around the bottle. You can even use a decanter with a pocket for crushed ice. The problem with all of these methods is that without geeking around with a thermometer you don’t know when you’ve hit the right temp-erature, so you risk under- or over-chilling your wine.
The best method is simply to use your domestic fridge. Mine is set at 4°C and after 30 minutes a bottle of wine stored at 20°C is chilled to 16.5°C. There are several variables, but you can use this as a starting point for experimentation. The glass bottle keeps the wine cool for a while on the dinner table; place it in a metal wine cooler to retain the right temperature for longer.
Taylors of Clare Valley, Australia (known as Wakefield in the UK), has come up with a smart solution. Sensors on the labels of their Promised Land and Estate ranges change colour depending on their temperature, with a guide to show you when to remove it from the fridge, meaning you don’t have to rely on guesswork.
Stay cool
The subset of wines that work well slightly chilled is becoming broader, more exciting and fashionable, yet the wines are often well priced; I had no trouble selecting 25 different examples, all but one below £20 (p33). Perhaps it’s because this style of wine isn’t
‘Chill a red down and flavours come into focus, alcohol becomes less apparent and structure tightens up’
usually long-lived; most in my selection are best drunk this year or next. But a lack of longevity is not necessarily a shortcoming; ageability is overrated. Many of the most exciting new-wave wines coming out of Australia, California, Chile, South Africa and Spain are thrilling when young; the Sadie Family Wines Old Vine Series is a case in point.
These are not necessarily wines to meditate over, they’re wines to refresh and invigorate. But that’s not to say they lack complexity; and they all have character, drinkability and a sense of place. Thanks to their refreshment value, they come into their own in summer time; but, like me, you might find yourself warming to this style all year round.