Serving Temperature

(Please note - as ever I speak only about wines of a red persuasion)

Once more I recently dealt with the whole "I thought you should serve wine at room temperature" thing when I served a rather lovely Petit Verdot at around 15°C, and only last night in a "restaurant" I heard the same thing from the waitress presenting me a bottle of wine at around 22°C, despite the label saying it should be enjoyed between 16°C and 18°C.
Let's think about this for one moment - apply some logic...

I live in an Alentejan farmhouse, at altitude, with no heating - when we start dinner in the winter the lounge is usually around 13°C (don't worry, we put a heater on), in the summer around 25°C. So, depending on the season, the same wine should be served at such radically different temperatures?
Of course not!
This whole "room temperature" thing was perhaps broadly true in days of yore, before central heating, when the houses of Europe had very thick walls, a single fire-place you sat next to when you wanted to be warm, and temperatures in the body of the room rarely left the 16°C to 18°C range. Wine was taken from the cellar, probably around 12°C to 14°C, and allowed to "warm up" a little before consumption.

OK.
Myth debunked, let's move on...

Why is this so important?

Because a red wine served too warm just isn't showing you its best side - whilst there's quite a lot of subtlety involved, in broad brush strokes...

• In a wine served too warm the alcohol tends to dominate, masking the very flavours you spent your hard-earned euros to be enjoying.
• In a wine served too cool there can be too much astringency due to overemphasised tannins.

If you're used to drinking your red wine too warm, it can be a bit of a shock to start tasting them cooler - but give it a go - put a glass of wine at your usual temperature in the fridge for, say, 10 minutes, and then taste side by side with a newly poured glass, and be objective.

OK.

Sold!

How do I achieve optimal temperature?

You can, these days, buy machines in which you can put your bottle, type in the number you want and, bingo, in a while it's at the right temperature.

I have yet to see one of these devices that will take a decanter and you are, of course, serving from a decanter, so those are pretty much useless for red wine.

Once I became a convert to drinking at the correct temperature I only had a problem in the summer. What I used to do was put the decanter in a cool box with one or two of those ice block things (depending on ambient temperature) straight from the freezer, for a couple of hours. About half an hour before dinner I'd taste a small sample and, depending on the temperature, either leave it there, or remove it to warm up a little.

Of course, after a while, I wanted something a little more automatic and a little less hit-and-miss, so I bought an electronic temperature sensor switch for about 15€ and rigged up an old CamperVan 3-power-source fridge (it's ammonia based, so sits completely silently in the lounge). I just pop the decanter in and after an hour or so it's good to go - the other advantage is that, when I put the decanter back, every glass of wine will be at the correct temperature.

And out and about...?

Any restaurant serving quality wine should be taking it from a cooler at the correct temperature - and some do. I vividly remember the first time I ate at As Colunas in Lisbon - after a few days of being offered hot wine I politely asked Joanna if they had the wines on the (rather excellent) wine list at "more or less the right temperature" - she smiled and said "No, we serve all these wines at exactly the right temperature" - and so they did, and do.
But, sadly, many don't - why they expect you to pay 100€ or more for a bottle of wine at 25°C is beyond me. Personally I wouldn't pay it.
But you'll find yourselves in places where the wine is just too hot to be a pleasant - what do you do?
This is really pretty simple - you ask for an ice-bucket, or, as last resort, a "manga" (a sleeve they take from the deep freeze, usually used for white wine). Yes, they'll look at you strangely, as will the other customers - because, of course, they're all thinking "room temperature" - but they're your euros, and the white wine people expect one, so why shouldn't you? The Zé do Cozido, one of our favourite Lisbon restaurants, are always happy to decant the wine and pop the decanter into an ice-bucket.
After 10 minutes or so you'll notice the difference, and probably after 30 or so you'll need to take it out to stop it becoming too cold.

Cafés are a different proposition - sure, it's likely to be cheap wine, usually from a box, but it will still taste a lot better cooler, not to mention that at 35°C it will be disgusting. Many cafés will have decanted some from the box into a bottle and put that in the fridge - excellent people! - yes, too cold, but when you're outside basking in the 40°C it will soon warm up.

Where to buy wine

Perhaps this seems like a strange topic - it's obvious where you buy wine, isn't it?
Probably so, but I'd like to make some observations, and it's my blog!

Adegas

This is my favourite place to acquire wine, for a number of reasons...

• Smaller producers especially are, in my experience, very happy to show you around, and chat to you about their wines - their insights into their particular terroir, production methods, history etc etc can be quite fascinating. And there's something a little more special about drinking a wine you bought last week from the people who live with their vines every day of the year and actually made it. My very first Adega visit was to Nuno at Fonte d'Avis - a very small producer who make one of my all time favourite wines (Fonte d'Avis Reserva 2007, which was why I went) - to this day I remember the hours we spent on his porch that hot afternoon eating cheese and bread, sipping wine and ending with a carafe of his home made "port" wine, straight from the barrel - and every time I drink his (very much his) wine fine memories flood back.
• Some Adegas have very special pricing for people who visit. But don't take that as a given - some seem to have "protect the shop" pricing which can be more than if you can find their wines in supermarkets.
• Some wines can actually be quite hard to find through other means.

But sometimes you need to buy whole cases - this can be risky if you don't know the wine or the producer - this is but one excellent reason for attending tastings.

Supermarkets

I seem to often find myself in supermarkets - my wife seems to want to keep buying food - but looking at the wine selection provides me something to do, and I actually buy a fair amount of supermarket wine.

• Intermarché is a very interesting supermarket chain since, I'm told, many of them are franchises. This means that the offerings in one Intermarché are usually quite different to that in another - often featuring local wines - up in the Dão, for example, you'll find a lot more Dão wines than you do in the Alentejo - and often at very good prices. They also quite often seem to feature "strange" old wines which are often quite good value - our local one here in Portalegre suddenly had a 2003 Dão wine from the Quinta da Infesta - I know, why was a such a strange Dão wine here? - fabulous value at 2.49€.
• Loyalty cards can make a huge difference. Continent often has 10%, or more, off everything and, once in a while, a "25% off all Alentejo wines" offer crops up where we are - this is the time to clear their shelves of Marquês de Borba Reserva 2012, for example, or the Mouchão 2011 - good value at 30€, but a steal at under 23€, and to try some other wines at the "lower" price.

Garrafeiras

Garrafeiras (wine shops) are, of course, one of the classic places to find a wide range of wines, including those "special" (aka expensive) wines and ports.

I personally very rarely buy from these places. Once in a while in Lisbon, for example, I'll buy a single bottle from a Garrafeira, or the El Corte Ingles Gourmet shop, but I'm usually on foot and not wanting to hoik a bottle around on my back for the rest of the day. On occasion I've found myself with a car near such a place, and then I'll buy a few (or more) bottles. Of course I simply love to window shop in these places when I pass them!

I would urge diligence when buying in such places - care and caution, even, and that concerns pricing.

It's not that wine in Garrafeiras is necessarily overpriced - much of it isn't - but some of it most definitely is - and that varies from Garrafeira to Garrafeira and from wine to wine. So you might be in a shop and have looked at 5 wines whose price, more or less, you know (you should always do this first in a new shop - find some wines whose prices you know to compare) - do not deduce that "the prices in this shop are uniformly (un)reasonable". For reasons I don't really understand, but perhaps have to do with distribution channels, Garrafeiras always seem to have some "good value", and some "not such good value" wines on offer - the shop next door might have the same "not such good value" wine at a "good value" price!

Unless you have money to burn - in which case please drop me a line and we can become drinking buddies - I think it's best, by and large, to know what you want to buy, and for approximately how much, when you enter such places.

Mail Order

Although I have, in my time, bought by mail order, this is, by a long way, my least favourite way of buying wine.

• Where I live delivery is a problem - my house has no number, and sits on a road with no name, near a village whose name only the locals know, and, for some reason I simply can't fathom, delivery drivers have no access to any GPS technology (despite them all having smart phones). I don't like to "stay in" to receive a scheduled delivery only for that delivery not to turn up. I've been stung twice (although not buying wine) with goods failing to turn up. Only recently I bought 3 bottles of vintage port wine which were delivered to the wrong address - and the guy proceeded to give them away. If you live in a "delivery safe" place, this probably doesn't apply to you.
• Most mail order companies have failed my "reply to an email" test. Before considering buying anything mail order, if I will have to pay in advance, be it wine or anything else, I will write an email to the company, in Portuguese and English, with a query of some sort. Yes, this is a test. Sadly, most companies fail by simply not replying. If they can't answer me before they have my money, what will the situation be like when they have my money?
• Through much of the year I don't like the idea of my wine sitting in the back of a van for days on end - in the summer it might well cook, in the winter it might freeze.
• I simply don't like the idea of having to deal with any problems that might arise - the more so since I've already paid (in contrast to Portugal, many Spanish mail order wine stores offer "cash on delivery" - this system makes me happy)

I would also draw your attention to the pricing section above under "Garrafeiras" - in the mail order world this seems even more common, and I could show you wines for 20€ in one shop on offer for 50€s in others - diligence, diligence, diligence!

Restaurants

This is a very difficult section to write, and I have a lot to say about this, so I've going to save it for a whole essay on its own