Cold red wine

This is an interesting article about what red wines take well to chilling that was recently posted in the food52 news feed.

http://eatocracy.cnn.com/2011/08/07/chilling-with-red-wine/

food52 used to have an in-house wine expert, with occasional videos. Her name is Sasha Smith and she's got an awesome wine blog, too: http://www.spinthebottleny.com

At the top of this page on the toolbar, click on "BLOG", then click on "Wine" under "BROWSE BY TOPIC". You'll find all of Sasha's cool videos. Sasha recently had twins and i think that's why we haven't heard too much from her lately.

One thing I learned over the years is don't get to hung up on the "proper" wine or way to enjoy the wine. As teenagers, we always hopped over the channel and joined in the vendange in France. What great fun and wonderful experience that showed me how to really enjoy wine and not to be so stuck in tradition. I later worked for a major French importer in the US for several years. One of the reason I left the industry was the pretentious airs so many wine people put on. My point is, do what you enjoy and like when it comes to drinking wine. Explore and try lots of the new wines that are always coming to this country, but don't get hung up on all the scores and pompous wordsmithing going on out there concerning wines . . it is just some person trying to make a living pontificating their holier-then-thou opinion. . . . present company excluded.

I have read that red wines should be served at 62F, so ChefJune has some good advice. I am interesed in the background for your question - what is happening that you want to serve wine with a bit of a chill? Although 62F does have a chill.

A good, chilled dry rose is like summer in a glass.

Anyway, just thought of something else - which again isn't Italian, so may be irrelevant - but when I think of red wine + cold + summer my mind goes to Sangria. Then again, once upon a time Spain controlled Italy, so...

Red wines are not at their best served CHILLED. Beaujolais and some Valpolicellas and Barberas are lovely served COOL, but that's not very cold.

FWIW, please don't serve your reds too warm, though. American "room temperature" tends to be too much for red wine.

An interesting rule of thumb: Take your white wine OUT of the fridge 20 minutes before you want to serve it, and put your red wine IN the fridge for 20 minutes before you want to serve it.

Don't confuse cellar temperature wines with chilled wines. America take everything to extremes and over chill whites and serve reds too warm. Lighter reds are often better served directly out of the cellar - around 50f degrees. Italy makes many light reds as they do more full bodied wines. Valpolicella is one of the best known reds that is often a light red, though there are some more full bodied styles. This is just one example of a light Italian red . . .there are many others. Don't discount many of the wonderful roses that are dry, full bodied and have a wonderful fruit that are prefect for the summer heat and summer meals.

Not Italian, but Beaujolais is often served slightly chilled (especially Beaujolais Nouveau - but that comes in the fall.) Not icy cold - just a little bit.