TDG: Wine Camp: Intemperate Consumption

[Marlene]

Just play it cool, boy,

Real cool!

Follow this link as Craig Camp decants on wine and temperatures

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[divina]

Thanks Craig!

One of the things that surprises my cooking students is that when we go to the Casa del Vino here in Florence, to Gianni Migliorini, my personal sommellier, and he pairs the wine to our menu for the day... he will often tell us to chill the red and for how long...

or to drink the white room temp.. that too cold will kill the flavor.

also often a cool red on a hot day is perfect with fish... or a room temp full bodied white.. because it is hot outside with Beef..

think outside of the box... and drink outside of the bottle??

Edited June 18, 2004 by divina (log)

[Boris_A]

Two little remarks:

1) The famous "room temperature" (actually 17 degrees C ) is rather a reference to old day room temperature in the days of ovens, not central heating.

2) In our generally overheated homes (20-22 C), the wine (especially in the "prewarmed" glass) gets up in temperature rather quick. So if you slowly sip your great Barolo/Napa during a meal, I'd bet the last drops are at 20 C or more. That's why I store my wines (the last hours before opening) under a window where there's always a cooler air stream in winter time, or I leave the bottle in the cellar at 15-16 until the last moment in summer time. That way, I serve it slightly "chilled" to compensate for the effect.

[Craig Camp]

Boris - how do you handle a wine you want to decant for several hours before serving?

[Boris_A]

Boris - how do you handle a wine you want to decant for several hours before serving?

1) As an ingnorant, lazy peasant, I decant rarely.

2) I have 3 decanters. In extremis, I use all of them and go as I decribed it: I'm placing them below my window. Actually, I never measured, but usually the glas feels like a cellar temperature. I should add that very near of this window, there's an air intake for my rather strong ventilation (to avoid under-pressure). So it's pretty cool there. But if you have a room angle with adjacent windows, you'll find also lower temps there.

On the rare occasions I served decanted wine during summer time, I did the decanting in the cellar and left it there.

When I hastily read you article this morning, I overlooked that you mentioned the problem of the warming in the glas.

You're the first wine writer I saw caring about this problem, which most people (else meticulous about the right serving temeprature) seem not to grasp in it's dimension. Probably, we all tend to overlook rather slow dynamic processes and are mostly judging things by perception of the statics, I think.

[heidihi]

Thanks for the wonderfully direct and helpful article Craig, being a bit of a newbie here I look forward to going back and reading more of your previous posts.

I am looking forward to trying that Torre Quarto 2003 Guappo, is there anywhere that you know of to order a couple of bottles of it online?

[Craig Camp]

Thanks for the wonderfully direct and helpful article Craig, being a bit of a newbie here I look forward to going back and reading more of your previous posts.

I am looking forward to trying that Torre Quarto 2003 Guappo, is there anywhere that you know of to order a couple of bottles of it online?

To find Guappo just send a note to the importer at: jens@montecastelli.com

...and glad you enjoyed the article.

[heidihi]

Great! I will mail them right now. Can't wait to try it. -h