I want to share an easy way to remember good temperatures to serve wine at. I came across it in the “Welcome to Wine Country” brochure from Uncork New York!, which suggests two mnemonics to remember: 45-55-65 and 3-2-1.
1) Sparkling wines, including Champagne, should be served at 45° F. It takes three hours of refrigeration to achieve this temperature.
2) White table wines and late harvest and ice wine dessert wines should be served at 55° F. A good two hours in the fridge should be sufficient to cool them.
3) Red wines, port and sherry should be served at the cool room temperature of 65° F. It takes about one hour to reach this temperature.
This is an easy system to remember, but it benefits from some tweaking. After doing more research, I came up with other numbers that suggest serving:
Sparkling wines and Champagne at 40° F to 50° F
Light- to medium-bodied whites at 40° F to 50° F
Full-bodied whites at 47° F to 60° F
Rosés at 40° F to 55° F
Light, fruity reds at 50° F to 62° F
Complex, rich, mature reds at 60° F to 68° F
White dessert wines at 40° F to 50° F
Port at 60° F to 65° F
Unfortunately, the nifty mnemonic doesn’t work for these temperatures. Such is life. I suggest you try out different temperatures and post your favorites on the refrigerator. For many of us, just getting in the ballpark of these temperatures will be sufficient.
