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!

So along comes the question I often hear: “Do I need a two- temperature unit to store my reds and whites?” If your intentions are to store your wines for aging and protection, you need only a one- temperature unit. Ideally, all wines (reds, whites, champagne and ports) best store at temperatures between 50-60 degrees.

At this point, I usually get: “But shouldn’t my white wines be at a colder temperature? Yes, but now we are talking about service temperature. You can have storage and service in one unit with a two- temp unit that will allow for both functions, but there are other tricks for bringing wine to service temperature.

So, you’ve decided on a unit for strictly wine storage. It’s early Friday evening and you reach for a bottle of white and red to get your weekend started off right. The red and white are both at 55 degrees – storage temperature! You want to get things started and get your wine at service temperature.

Here is what I suggest: for the red, get out your favorite decanter and pour the bottle carefully into it. Set aside and let sit for about 15 minutes. The act of transferring the wine from a chilled bottle to decanter will make a big difference You want to enjoy most red wines at around 65 degrees.

For the whites, I am a big fan of rapid ice (a gel-filled sleeve you leave in the freezer) but there is a new kid on the block: the wine chilling carafe. It’s a fast and easy way to chill down your wines. Just fill the chamber, insert with ice and place into the carafe – it brings your 55 degree white down to 45 degrees in about 10 minutes. If you’re short on time, check out the new Ravi instant wine chiller, it chills your wine in seconds.

What are some tricks that you use to bring your wine from storage to service temperature? Leave a comment, and fill us in!