During the mid-July hot spell, I had dinner and tasted wines in Toronto with Ivan Klobucar, the North American vice-president for export for Angove’s, one of Australia’s biggest independent wineries. The restaurant was air-conditioned but even then, the red wines were warmer than optimum, so Ivan put it in an ice bucket for 15 minutes.
What a difference. The Bear Crossing Cabernet Merlot ($11.95, LCBO No. 592766) was transformed from a slightly coarse, alcohol-smelling red to a fruit-driven, surprisingly complex wine. Meanwhile, Angove “Stonegate” Cabernet Shiraz ($9.95, LCBO No. 618447) became stylish and balanced, with fine fruit flavours.
Serving temperature really is important, especially in summer, because wine can be ruined if it’s served at the wrong temperature. Too warm is far worse than too cold. Wine that’s too cold will warm up in the glass, unless you’re ice-fishing at the time, but a too-warm wine won’t cool down.
Don’t be shy about asking for an ice bucket.
Three weeks ago, I had dinner on the terrace of a restaurant in Bordeaux, where the temperature was in the mid-30s. When our bottle of red arrived, it was too warm, and the sommelier immediately offered to bring an ice bucket. Fifteen minutes later, we were in business.
Checking temperature is one reason for tasting wine before you accept it. Many wine professionals simply sniff the sample of wine, and smell does give you the best take on faulty wine. Sniffing also detects alcohol aromas given off by wine that’s too warm. But tasting wine is the only way to gauge temperature properly.
White wines should feel cold (but not icy) and reds should feel cool, markedly cooler than the inside of your mouth. If you take a mouthful of wine and you don’t feel a cooling effect, the wine is body temperature, and that’s far too warm.
Does it really matter? Well, yes, it does. Winemakers make wine to have particular flavours and textures, and big reds generally have them at between 15° and 18°C — a lot cooler than an air-conditioned restaurant.
By tasting better at particular temperatures, wine is no different from other beverages. Is lukewarm coffee as pleasant as hot coffee? Do you like milk that’s been sitting outside as much as milk straight from the refrigerator?
In my July 6 column, I wrote that fewer than 200 restaurants in Ontario and 20 in Ottawa offer bring-your-own (BYO). The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario contacted me to say I’d grossly understated the numbers (which I got from various web sources) and that some 774 BYO licences had been issued province-wide, including 54 in Ottawa (as of July 4).
But it’s not as straightforward as it looks, because many restaurants with BYO licences aren’t yet using them. Sandy Ward of the website www.bringmywine.ca tells me he’s surveyed hundreds of restaurants, and estimates 50 per cent of those with BYO licences don’t yet offer BYO to their customers.
BYO licences issued represent under five per cent of all licensed establishments in Ontario and seven per cent of those in Ottawa. But the percentage of licensed places actually offering BYO could be as low as half those figures.