It’s time to step up your serving game. From serving your bottles at perfect temperature to picking the proper stemware, here’s your cheat sheet to serving wine flawlessly.
Sparkling Wine
Champagne, Cava, Prosecco, Sekt, etc.
Bubblies benefit from chilling. Keeping them at 41–45°F helps preserve the bottle’s effervescence, bringing out its fresh citrus notes and acidity. With vintage Champagnes, serve a bit warmer, 45–50°F, to enhance those toast and biscuit notes.
Time in Fridge: Up to two hours before serving
Stemware Tip: The best wine glasses for sparkling wine may surprise you. The tall, thin flute is designed to highlight Champagne’s fine, yeasty bouquet, concentrate its creamy textures and preserve its effervescence, but the wine experts we spoke to saw them as mostly for showing off beautiful bubbles.
Instead, the head of winemaking and viticulture at one estate recommends a white wine glass—stemmed with a bowl—to allow the sparkling to breathe, magnifying its rich aromas.
“The white wine glass offers more surface area, and you can get your nose in there and sense more of the aromatics as it’s warming up, whereas the flute is a pocket of gas that can make you cough as you’re inhaling all that carbon dioxide,” he says.
For a vintage look, Salomé Dussán, sommelier at Santa Barbara Wine Collective, likes throwing it back to the ’60s and ’70s by serving Champagne in a coupe glass, especially a vintage one. “The coupe is just perfect in my opinion, because the aromas are just going to blast you in your face,” Dussán says.
David Osenbach, sommelier and wine director at Providence, which has two Michelin stars, notes that it’s much harder to swan about a party while carrying a shallow coupe than a flute, though. “If I’m at a party, I want to drink out of a flute because it looks fun, but if I have a prized bottle of older Champagne I want to cherish, I put it in a bigger glass like a white wine glass, for sure,” Osenbach says. “I’ll even decant Champagne to give it more air.”
Light Dry White Wine
Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Riesling, etc.
There’s some debate as to the best temperature to serve white light, dry white wines. Malone believes 55°F is ideal, while Osenbach starts a bit colder, around 45–49°F, to give the glass room to warm up. Understanding the wine glass and specific varietal, however, can help to determine the proper temperature. The lighter the wine is in color and style, the colder it should be served to maintain its acidity and freshness.
Time in Fridge: 1½ hours
Stemware Tip: A stemmed wine glass with a U-shaped bowl captures and distributes the wine’s floral and fruity aromas. The rim directs the wine to the front of the palate, balancing acidity and fruit, and the small opening keeps the wine cooler. Don’t use a red wine glass for a light white, since the best wine glass for white wines boast a longer stem. “The reason for this is because the farther away you put your hand from the wine, the longer that wine is going to be cold,” Dussán says.
Rosés
Rosés are best served slightly warmer than light whites, between 48–53°F, because of their complex fruit flavors and mild tannins. Since rosés can be produced from a number of varieties with different characteristics, the same rule as light, dry whites applies: the lighter in color and style it is, the cooler the serving temperature.
Time in Fridge: Up to 1½ hours
Stemware Tip: A stemmed glass with a bowl that’s slightly tapered at the top works best for mature, full-bodied rosés. A slightly flared lip benefits younger, crisper and sweeter rosés. The lip directs sweetness to the tip of the tongue, where taste buds are most sensitive.
Full-Bodied White
Chardonnay, Albariño, Viognier, etc.
Serving these complex whites at 50–55°F enhances their layered aromatic characteristics and rich flavors. Tip: The less oaky the wine, the closer to 50°F it should be served. White Burgundy and well-oaked Viognier should be served closer to 55°F.
Time in Fridge: 1 hour
Stemware Tip: The classic Chardonnay glass—stemmed, with a rounded bowl and wide rim—dispenses the acidity and bold flavors evenly to the back and sides of the tongue. This wider-bowled wine glass, similar to a red wine glass, can also be used for older vintage or well-oaked whites.
Orange Wine
Wine experts advise you not to serve skin-contact white wines, also known as orange wines, too cold, or you’ll miss out on their fragrant aromas. Osenbach pulls his skin-contact wines from the Providence cellar at 55°F, and allows them to rise to the low 60s by the time they’re poured. “I feel like the texture, the way they’re made, is more like a red wine, even though they’re a white grape, because you’re getting tannins from the skins,” he says.
Time in Fridge: 1 hour
Stemware Tip: A traditional white wine glass is the best wine glass for orange wines, because it allows you to keep a skin-contact white suitably chilled, while enjoying the herbaceous scent and juicy freshness.
Light Medium Bodied Reds
Beaujolais, Chianti, Dolcetto, Pinot Noir, Nero d’Avola, etc.
The vibrant aromas and flavors of these reds are best highlighted at 54–60°F. If poured too warm, their luscious fruit flavors will taste tart and acidic, ultimately overpowering.
Time in Fridge: 45–60 minutes
Stemware Tip: A Chianti-style wine glass, stemmed with a slightly tapered rim, best accentuates light-bodied wines that are fruit and mineral forward with buoyant acidity. A wider-bowled Pinot Noir wine glass is perfect for more complex, medium-bodied wines with delicate qualities.
Full Bodied Red Wines
Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah/Shiraz, Merlot, Tempranillo, Malbec, etc.
There’s a misconception that big reds should be served at around 70°F, a temperature that allows the alcohol to dominate flavor. When served at the proper temperature, 60–65°F, full-bodied wines reflect a lush mouthfeel, rounded tannins and well-balanced acidity.
Time in Fridge: 25 minutes
Stemware Tip: Big, bold wines need wide-bowled glasses with greater surface area. It allows the wines’ high acidity, rich fruit and oak characteristics, and alcohol to breathe and sit in proper balance.
Fortified Wine
Again, the lighter in color and style, the cooler these fortified wines should be served. Delicate tawny Ports and fino Sherries are best enjoyed at 57–60°F, while Madeiras and vintage Ports express their dark, complex characteristic best at about 66°F.
Time in Fridge: 20 minutes for the bolder selections; up to 45 minutes for the lighter styles.
Stemware Tip: Because fortified wines have higher alcohol levels than still or sparkling wines, the best wine glasses have short stems and small bowls. The narrow, short opening dulls the alcohol while enhancing the sweetness and subtle nuances on the nose and palate.
But, Wait, There’s Even More
Time in Fridge reflects a starting temperature of about 72°F, or room temperature. If your bottles are stored in a cellar or wine refrigerator, chill your whites and reds for 30 minutes. Serve white wines immediately. Let your reds sit at room temperature for another 30 minutes before serving.
Opting for a wine refrigerator is a wise choice, because they help you keep wines at consistent temperatures and closer to serving temperature. Some models offer varied cooling zones, so you can have red wines, white wines and Champagne ready to serve more quickly. If you don’t have a cellar or wine fridge, look for the darkest, coolest spot in your house with a consistent temperature, says Osenbach, even if it’s a touch warmer than you’d like.
Use a bucket filled with equal amounts ice and water to chill wines that were resting on a rack. White wines should be chilled for 20 minutes and red wines should be chilled for 10 minutes before serving. If you don’t have ice, you can wrap the wine bottle in a damp paper towel and put it in the freezer for 20 minutes, but don’t forget to set a timer, or the bottle may shatter. Take it out by the 20-minute mark, uncork it and let it breathe for five to eight minutes before serving, says Dussán.
Use common sense when selecting your wine chilling temperature. If you’re serving a multicourse meal or guests are slow drinkers who tend to linger over a wine glass, chill your wines to the colder range of the appropriate temperature, says Osenbach. “Err on the side of colder, because you can’t make the wine colder once it’s been served, but it will get warmer,” he says.
However, chill it too cold, and “you can mute everything you want to know about the wine: the aromas, as well as your palate,” Dussán says. “Too cold, and the aroma doesn’t tell you anything about the wine. We need to apply the correct temperature.”
A Bit About Decanting and Aerating
Decant young, tannic reds and old-vintage wines for about 30 minutes. The young wines’ tannins will soften, and secondary characteristics will shine through. Aged wines with loads of fruit character and heavy oak treatment will open up and express a well-balanced mouthfeel.
When should you aerate rather than decant your wine? The main advantage of aeration devices is speed, since an aerator can provide results in minutes rather than half an hour.
Aerate only bold, young wines. Never aerate a delicate aged wine. “For decanting versus aeration, it depends on the age of the wine, more than the type,” says Dussán. “The aerator will help a little to open the wine to the air, but if I have wines that are older than five years old, I definitely want to decant them.”
Aerating wine is controversial with wine experts. “Aeration to me is like using a baseball bat on a bottle of wine,” says Malone. “Decanting is so much more delicate. I see people take aged wines and put them through an aerator. What are you doing? It’s already aged; use the aerator on a young wine.”
According to one winemaker, you don’t even need a fancy decanter. “People talk about more surface space, but get the wine into a vessel—I use juice carafes at home—and it’ll decant.”
If you do opt for a wine decanter, Osenbach recommends a generously-sized decanter that can accommodate more than 750 milliliters, with a simple design that’s easy to clean, and a wide base to expose more surface area of the wine to the air.
