What is the right temperature to serve wine?

1 July 2024

Wines are at their absolute best when served at the right temperature. The temperature at which a wine is served can significantly affect its aromas and flavours, so it is important to get it as close to optimum temperature as you can.

Whether too warm or too cold, the wrong temperature means you will miss out on what makes a particular wine special. Too warm and it can taste dull and uninspiring, while too cold and its distinctive flavours will be lacking. If you get a strong smell of alcohol when you pour your wine, it is possible that it is too warm and needs cooling down before you drink it.

Too cool is better than too warm for wine and is far easier to adjust. In fact, once in the glass, wines can warm up pretty quickly – especially outside on a sunny day or in a warm restaurant with the heating on. If that looks likely, it is always a good idea to start with your wine a bit cooler than these suggested temperatures, because a lukewarm glass of wine isn’t appealing!

So what is the perfect temperature to serve wine?

a row of vines in a vineyard with a blue sky in the background

Red wine


As a rule of thumb, red wine should be served at room temperature. But the reality is, your room is likely to be a bit warmer than the wine should be. Changing seasons, central heating and air conditioning all change the true temperature of a room.


Room temperature when it comes to wine is generally defined as around 15 to 18°C But most people will prefer their rooms to be around 19 or 20°C to feel comfortable.


If red wine is served at a temperature above 18°C, it will seem to lose its freshness. But if it is left to cool to optimal temperature, its balance should be restored and it will taste as you would expect it to taste.


Lighter reds, such as Pinot Noir should be served at quite a bit below ‘room temperature’ – around 12 to 13°C.
Medium reds, such as Merlot, should be served at around 13 to 15°C.


Full-bodied reds, like Cabernet Sauvignon, are best served at between 15 and 18°C.


So how do you serve wine at a bit below room temperature?


Although refrigerating red wine feels wrong, a few minutes in the fridge or quick dunk in a bucket of ice and water, can help to bring the temperature down from the real room temperature to the right temperature for the wine. Lighter reds may benefit from longer in the fridge, especially on a hot day.


If you’ve served red wine at too low a temperature, simply holding the glass in your hands for a few minutes can usually be enough to bring it up to the right temperature. Alternatively, decanting it into a container which has been rinsed in warm water can make the difference. Don’t be tempted to warm it quickly, for example by placing it near a radiator, as the sudden rise in temperature can damage the wine.

several bottles of three choirs wine are lined up on a table

White wine


White wines are best served chilled at just above fridge temperature - around 7 to 13°C. Generally, the lighter or sweeter the wine, the cooler the serving temperature. But chilling to 6°C or lower can mask the flavour of the wine.

Light and medium-bodied white wines, such as Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, are best served at around 8 or 9°C. At this temperature, the flavours will be crisp. To achieve this temperature, white wines should be chilled in the fridge for at least 45 minutes.

Full-bodied whites like Chardonnay can be served slightly warmer – at 10 to 13°C – to allow more flavour to emerge in the glass. These wines should be cooled in the fridge for 20 to 30 minutes before serving.

Rosé wine


Like white wine, rosé wine tastes best at around 7 to 13°C and is very refreshing on a warm day. Giving it 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge will allow the berry flavours to come through. But chill it for too long and those fruit flavours will be lost!

If you’ve over-chilled, open the bottle and leave it on the table to gradually warm up.


Sparkling wine


The right temperature to serve sparkling wine is cold! To get the taste just right, it should be served at 3 to 7°C.

Prosecco is best when it is almost ice cold, while Champagne should be served slightly warmer to really taste its complex flavours. Vintage Champagne should be served at a higher temperature still – around 10 to 13°C, like a full-bodied white.


Sparkling wine should have at least 30 or 40 minutes in the fridge before serving. To avoid it warming up too quickly, either put it in an ice bucket or back in the fridge between pours.

 

 

It is important to serve your wine at the right temperature, but it is also important to store it at the right temperature. Surprisingly, the kitchen isn’t the best place to keep your wine. The temperature varies too much, especially if you are keeping your wine close to the oven or a radiator.

It is also important to store it away from bright light, including sunlight and LED lighting, as lighting can also cause wine to heat up in the bottle. Constant rising temperatures can cause wine to become ‘cooked’ in the bottle.

If you’re not intending to drink your wine soon after purchase, a wine fridge set to a constant 13°C is a good way to store all wines. You can then either bring it out of the wine fridge to gradually get it up to room temperature or put it in your main fridge to cool down, to ensure it is the right temperature to serve.

And if you’re not sure whether you’ve got it right and you’re absolutely determined to serve your wine at the best temperature, you can invest in a wine thermometer.

Once you’ve taken all those steps, you should have your wine at the right temperature, to enjoy it at its very best.

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Choosing your wine for Christmas

25 November 2025
With the festive season just around the corner, thoughts turn to Christmas dinner, parties and celebrations. And whether you’re getting the party started or relaxing in front of the TV on Christmas Day evening, you may want to enjoy the festivities with a glass or two of wine. But how do you choose your wine for Christmas? Well the good news is, while you might want to splash out and choose something a bit more special than your usual tipple, there are no rights and wrongs when choosing wine for Christmas. Thomas Shaw, managing director of Three Choirs Vineyard, said: “Don’t feel as though there are any rules to follow. The most important thing is to drink what you enjoy. If you don’t enjoy red wine, don’t drink red wine, drink white instead!” Some people like to enjoy sparkling wine on Christmas Day. When it comes to sparkling wine, people tend to fall into two camps – those who love it and will drink it on every occasion and those who really don’t like it! If you’re someone who isn’t keen on sparkling wine, but you’ve got guests coming round who might enjoy a glass of something fizzy before Christmas dinner, there are a range of options. Thomas continued: “There’s no need to go crazy and buy something expensive. There is a big range of prices from Cava and Prosecco up to top of the range Champagne, so you can spend as much or little as you want. “If you’re going to mix it with orange juice for buck’s fizz, definitely buy something cheaper!” While it’s not usual to have sparkling wine with your Christmas dinner, if you or your guess fancy some fizz with your turkey, just go for it! Alternatively, you might want to enjoy a refreshing white wine at lunchtime, then move to drinking red wine in the evening. Red wine is served warmer and feels like something to be enjoyed when you’re wrapped up warm in front of the fire. But there are no rules that say you have to move from white to red if you don’t want to and there are no rules which tell you exactly when you should make that change. Just do what feels right for you and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks! Whether you’re looking for red, white or sparkling for Christmas, if you want some advice and good value for money, go to a local independent wine retailer. They know all the wines on their shelves and should be able to help you choose something which is just right for you, your family and friends. Don’t be scared to ask for help! Most people will know the names of some popular wines, but won’t know, for example, whether a particular year was a good year. Asking someone who knows wines can be a real help when you are faced with so much choice. In the run-up to Christmas, local wine merchants and vineyards will sometimes hold evenings where you can go along and taste some wines to help you choose. It’s true that the price of a bottle of wine does generally reflect its quality, so when you go to a wine merchant, have a realistic budget in mind and try to stick to it! Unfortunately, wine has got more expensive in recent years, due to poor harvests in Europe, as well as inflation and the rising costs of energy and labour. Because the Christmas period is more than just one day, if you’re interested in trying new wines and finding out more about them, it is a great opportunity to learn more about what you like. Thomas said: “If you buy several different wines and taste them over a few days over Christmas, hopefully you will really like one or two of them. Having a variety over a short period of time means you’re less likely to forget what you like and what you were less keen on. And it’s good fun!” Could there be a better way to choose your wine for Christmas? 

After the harvest…

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Harvesting grapes at Three Choirs Vineyard

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When is the right time to pick the grapes?

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As August draws to an end, the team at Three Choirs Vineyard are gearing up ready for our harvest. But when is the right time to pick the grapes? We don’t have a definite set date for the annual harvest; it all depends on the weather. This year, it looks likely to start a bit early – probably in the first week of September - because of all the good weather we’ve had this summer. That is about 10 days to two weeks earlier than usual. As the climate is changing, the trend is towards picking earlier than we used to. But the harvest still takes the same amount of time. Generally, we would expect the harvest to last for about 10 weeks, but this will depend on what the weather is like and the quantity and quality of grapes on our vines. Here at Three Choirs, we have 14 different varieties of grapes, and they all ripen at slightly different times. The first grape we will pick is Siegerrebe, which is a pinky orange colour when ripe. Siegerrebe makes a white wine, because, as with most grapes, all the colour is in the skin and not the juice inside. Siegerrebe takes 76 days from flowering until the fruit is ready to pick. The timing really is as specific as that! All of the grape varieties have precise timings, although some of them are longer than others. Thomas Shaw, managing director, said: “It’s been a good year, with lots of sunshine. The grapes are fairly small, but that means they should have a nice concentration of flavours and sugars, which is what we need. We don’t need big fat grapes like you get in the supermarket, because they’re full of water.” It hasn’t just been a warm, sunny year, it has been a very dry one too. Will that affect our harvest? Thomas continued: “There was a lot of moisture in the ground early in the year. The roots of our vines go down 12 to 15 foot, so there is still enough moisture down there for them. “Grapes are different from other crops. Some farmers have been struggling this year because their crops have very small roots, and the ground is far too dry for them.” Picking is all done by hand. Fruit is picked and pressed on the same day. Thomas said: “To maximise the quality, we don’t pick when it’s rainy. If it’s raining, we can get a lot of wet fruit into the winery, which dilutes the wine.” So here’s hoping for a dry harvest! Early indications are that 2025 will be a successful year for grapes at Three Choirs. Flowering in late June and early July is a key time for our harvest, and the weather was just what we needed at that time. September and October will be the final decider if 2025 is a good quality year for our wines.
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Three Choirs hits the headlines

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