WineInk: Chillin’ your reds

It snuck up on us. At least, it did on me.

While there is still close to a week of May left on the calendar, this coming Monday is Memorial Day. The holiday that, at least unofficially, demarcates the change from spring to summer. And while it has been a bit cool around the edges here, we have a three-day weekend to celebrate the upcoming season of the sun.

That means it’s time to maybe change up the wines that we drink a bit. It’s kind of like when you put your ski sweaters and jackets into the clothes bins at the end of winter and pull out the shorts, tees, and flip-flops for summer. It’s not that you have to stop sippin’ your favorite cabernet sauvignon or Barolo; it’s just that as the days get longer and warmer, it is a good time to think lighter and maybe put a little frivolity in your wine glass.

For most wine drinkers, summer is the time to break out white wines like Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand or sip some Italian Prosecco or stock up on some rosé. And those are all perfectly good options.

But recent years have seen a growing movement toward drinking chilled red wines in the summertime. That’s right: One of the trends of the moment amongst the wine cognoscenti (especially the younger wine cognoscenti) is drinking red wines that have spent some time in the fridge or on ice. Younger wine drinkers who have adopted the “natural wine” ethos are finding that wines that are lower in alcohol and tannins can be delicious, satisfying, and affordable. And chillable.

Traditionally, red wines have been served at just around what is referred to as “room temperature,” and whites have been served chilled. So what have been the recommended temperatures for drinking wines? Well, for big red wines, the ideal suggested temps are somewhere between 62 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. For whites, the experts suggest a range from 49 to 55 degrees. In reality, especially in restaurants, most reds are served too warm, and conversely, many whites are served just plain cold.

But bucking tradition can be a good thing, and it just seems right to pay more attention to what makes sense rather than the archaic rules that have been set in the past. There is no reason why at a summer picnic or BBQ, for instance, beer or white wine should be the only things that are cool and refreshing. The right bottle of red wine can also cut the heat if it is cooled to 55 or 60 degrees on a warm day. Not ice cold, just cool enough to soften the wine a bit.

Today, the thinking is that by gauging the acidity, alcohol levels, and weight of a red wine, we can make better choices about the temperature at which that red wine should be consumed. While bigger, bolder reds may not do well when served too cold (Cold can mask aromas and tannins), lighter-style red wines like Beaujolais, gamay, Lambrusco, and grenache sing out loud when given a chill. They can be vibrant, juicy, fruity, floral, and refreshing. All things that go with summer.

The trick is to find red grapes or wine styles that are lighter in weight or viscosity, with lower tannins to begin with. A great place to start is with Beaujolais. This wine region in Burgundy, France, produces wines made from the gamay grape, which is thin-skinned and low in tannins. The wines of Beaujolais are made using a technique called carbonic maceration in which whole clusters of grapes are put into large tanks and fermentation begins from the bottom up within the berries themselves. The French almost always drink their Beaujolais cold. And they should know. The wines are light in style and fruity by nature. Chill them for a summer picnic, and you’ll have a delightful treat.

And there are any number of Italian red grape varieties that do well with some time on ice. In Sicily, the summer sun beats down on the vineyards and the populace. Lighter examples of nero d’avola and the more obscure but delicious nerello mascalese from the Mediterranean hot spot are perfect for cooling down in an ice bucket or in a fridge. The same is true about dolcetto, a  secondary grape from Piedmont that is a softer sipper than the region’s famed nebbiolo or barolo. The Valpolicella wines from the Veneto wine region are light and relatively low-alcohol wines, generally made from a blend of indigenous red grapes. And Lambrusco, the sparkling red wine of the Emilia-Romagna region of Lombardy, is enjoying a resurgence of late. All these wines are best when chilled a bit.

It doesn’t take a genius to chill wines nor do you need a digital thermometer. Once you have selected the bottle, or bottles, that you wish to imbibe, simply refrigerate them for 30-45 minutes before opening them or in a bucket of ice water for 20 minutes or so, and then pop the top. You can put your reds in the same cooler your white or sparkling wines or beers are in, and if they get a little too cold, don’t worry — they’ll heat up in the glass on a warm, summer day.

Life and wine. Both should be a little more chill in the summertime.