Though wine storage temperatures (53-57°F) are important, it’s just as important to take note of the temperature at which you enjoy your wine, its service temperature. Too often people drink white wines too cold and red wines too warm, limiting the wine’s capacity for enjoyment. A white that is too cold will be flavorless and a red that’s too warm is often quite flabby and alcoholic. You may be aware that reds are sipped at a warmer temperature than whites, but do you know exactly what temperature that is?

Though both are stored at 53-57°, white wines should be chilled before drinking while red wines should be allowed to come up in temperature. Ideally, whites should be between refrigerator temperature (40°F) and storage temperature (55°F) and reds should be somewhere between storage and room temperature which is often as high as 70°F. This is all great information, but most people don’t enjoy taking their wine’s temperature. So how will you know that your wine is at proper temperature without going through all of the hassle?

If you already have a wine storage solution that keeps your collection at 53-57°F, pop your bottles of white wine into the refrigerator half an hour prior to service and take your reds out of storage half an hour prior to service. This allows time for your whites to chill and your reds to warm up. If you’ve yet to invest in a wine storage solution, and your wines are kept at room temperature or in the refrigerator (which can be as cold as 40°F), you’ll do the opposite. Put your reds in the refrigerator for half an hour and take your whites out of the refrigerator for half an hour. Dessert wines, sparkling wines, and roses are best enjoyed at a cooler temperature than whites, refrigerator temperature will do the trick.

As the experts on wine accessories, Wine Enthusiast offers a wide variety of serving tools to accomodate your wine service needs, like Wine Buckets & Chillers and Thermometers. How do you get your wines to proper service temperatures? Leave a comment, and let us know!