BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Wine Wine serving for beginners

Hi everyone,

I'm a newbie and I read this forum from time to time. I just had a question I was hoping the wine experts could help me with .

I grew up in a large Italian family and we always had wine, but my grandmother served white or blush wines which were almost always chilled, and I'm never sure what to do with the red wines my in-laws prefer.

From what I've gathered, they are almost always served at room temperature and allowed to breathe for about an hour. The only ones they've ever served chilled were red zins or red zin blends. I'm generally not a fan of red wines, but I usually do like the chilled ones since they tend to be less dry. They served a lovely chilled blend of three wines called Manage a Trois a couple of times which I thought was pretty good.

Anyway, we bought a bottle of wine to bring to them for Easter. Nothing fancy, just a $9.99 bottle of wine that looked interesting. The name is Sebeka and it's a Cabernet Pinotage (65% Cab/35% Pino) from South Africa. I assume we do not need to chill this wine. In fact, I'm 99.9% that this is the case, but I just thought I'd check with you guys.

Thanks for the wine serving tips in advance!

PS. If this wine is on some list of the worst wines ever, let me know. While the in-laws are fine with lower priced bottles of wine, they can be wine snobs and often quote reviews they've read. If Sebeka is another Two Buck Chuck, I'd appreciate the warning.

Well first, when the French said "room temperature" they meant 50s and 60s - which for most modern people IS chilled They should never be "warm".

So how cold is your home?

Also if by breathe all you mean is take the cork out, pretty much no air exchange goes on in the tiny neck of the wine bottle between that coin-sized surface of the wine and the air that is stagnant above it So no need to bother, if that is what you do to breathe a wine

Thank you for the advice. I will not chill the wine. Their house is right by the beach, so it's always pretty cool there. It may be chilled by French standards, whether it's supposed to be or not!

Since we will be bringing the wine to their house, we'll let them deal with the "breathing" part. They're snobs, so they know what to do.

Thanks Lisa!

IMO, the key to room temperature is not so much the actual temperature, but that the wine is not much colder than the ambient temperature.

The two main schools of thought as to red wine are room temperature and cellar temperature. Cellar temperature will have a slight, but noticeable chill when served in a modern heated living space..

I prefe red wines at ambient temperature, even if that means in theaory they are warm.

Red zinfandels are not intended to be served chilled.

MOst wines are fine without any breathing time; conversely most wines are fine with an hour breathing time too.

" I usually do like the chilled ones since they tend to be less dry"

Of course the wines are not any more or less dry because they have been chilled. Chilling 'dumbs down', mutes all flavor components in a wine.

If you prefer chilled red wine, by all means chill it.

I have not drunk any, but from what I have read, Two BUck Chuck is generally well-thought of.

Sebeka wines are relatively new to the US market and there does not seem to be a lot of commentary on these wines.

Thanks Frank,

They seemed to enjoy the wine, unless they were just being kind, but I doubt it.

I thought I remembered that the red wines (or wine blends) they'd served chilled were zins, but I could be wrong. As I said, I'm not really a fan of red wines or any liquor that isn't sweet. I have a sweet tooth. I'ts just me. I don't like sour, bitter or salty anything. Sweet and spicy are my thing.

I had a glass of two buck chuck at a party. I thought it was fine.

Thank you for your input.

Frank - I imagine it depends on where you live - you can't really mean you drink wine at 90F if it's 95F out do you??

"you can't really mean you drink wine at 90F if it's 95F out do you??"

I do know I drink unchilled, not fresh from the cellar red wine in 95F weather. I know I drink red wine from a wine skin or bota on a hot summer's afternoon and find it refreshing. Bear in mind, I do not like chilled red wine. I also know I drink red wine less often during the hottest of days.

I really am a fiend for cold drinks during hot days - I can't keep enough ice in my freezer.

Would you agree that when the ambient temperature is 95F, a beverage served at 90F would seem cool? (Of course, more than "seem cool" the wine is in fact cool compared to the air temp.)

I really can't say for sure on your question, but since I do drink and enjoy red wine at 'room temperature' during the summer (no A/C at home) I would guess the answer is "Yes".

You may have a different tolerance for alcohol fumes than I do. When a wine gets up over say 60F, it starts to leech alcohol into the air. So instead of tasting all the nuances of cherry and blackberry and so on, you start to inhale alcohol.

So here's a related question - do you like cognac out of those wide-brimmed glasses, or out of narrow glasses? If you can drink it out of the wide brimmed glasses, then you don't mind alcohol fumes I definitely do. I much more enjoy cognac out of narrow rimmed glasses, and I like my wines around 60F - not because it's "cold and refreshing" but because at that temperature it's not alcoholey - it's about the flavors.