The right temperature for wine ... It is so personal, some prefer their wine a little cooler and others a little warmer than the recommended serving temperature. But a guideline does help you to do the wine justice, this applies to both white and red wine.
The best storage temperature for wine
First a word about storing wine; the storage temperature of all wines is between 10 and 14 °C (for a natural wine cellar 10 °C during the winter period and 14 °C in the summer). A wine cabinet can be adjusted to the degree, which is why we usually choose a constant temperature of 12 °C there.
The best drinking temperature
Assuming the wine comes from a wine cellar or wine cabinet, a white wine will need to be chilled a little further and a red wine warmed (chambreed). However, be careful not to pour a red wine at room temperature. It is still said, but the room temperature referred to here dates back to the days when houses were not so well insulated and you could always find somewhere around 18°C. Nowadays, everyone has it around 21 to 22 °C in their house. Absolutely too warm to serve red wine on.
The best serving temperature for red wine and white wine
Below is an overview of types of wine, their characteristics and the temperatures at which they are generally best served. Additional tip: you actually decide at what temperature you think the wine tastes best, the below are more guidelines.
The best serving temperature
| Wine type | Features | Temperature in °C |
| Red | Light and fruity | 13-16 |
| Red | Smooth and round | 15-17 |
| Red | Refined and complex | 16-18 |
| Red | Full and robust | 17-18 |
| Rosé | Fresh and fruity | 8-10 |
| Rosé | Full and round | 9-11 |
| Rosé | Powerful and complex | 10-12 |
| Rosé | Light sweet | 7-10 |
| Sparkling | Light sweet and sweet | 6-8 |
| Sparkling | Dry | 7-10 |
| White | Fresh and fruity | 8-11 |
| White | Refined and complex | 11-13 |
| White | Full and round | 10-13 |
| White | Light sweet and sweet | 7-9 |
So we can broadly say:
- Temperature for sparkling wine between 6 and 10 °C
- Temperature for white wine between 7 and 13 °C
- Temperature for rosé wine between 7 and 12 °C
- Temperature for red wine between 13 and 18 °C
The best temperature for port wine
Port is a wine variety in its own right. Yet port also has different serving temperatures at which a port variety is best.
| Port type | Features | Temperature in °C |
| Rosé | Fresh taste | 4 |
| White | The drier, the cooler | 6-10 |
| Ruby style | Fruity and young | 12-16 |
| Tawny style | Famous tan color | 10-14 |
| Aged Tawny's | Higher quality | 12-16 |
| Vintage | Full and round | 12 |
The best serving temperature for champagne
| Brand | Temperature in °C |
| General | 8-10 |
| Laurant-Perrier | 6-8 |
| Taittinger | 8 |
| Must Imperial | 8-9 |
| Dom Perignon | 8-10 |
| Charles Heidsieck | 8-10 |
| Bollinger | 10-12 |
How do you create the best temperature for wine?
EuroCave has wine cabinets in which different temperature zones ensure the perfect serving temperature for all your wines, from Champagne to Bordeaux. EuroCave also has a 2-bottle wine cooler, the Wine Bar, which in addition to bringing the bottles of wine to serving temperature, stores an opened wine bottle for up to 10 days.
For up to 12 bottles, look at Tête à Tête, and for a larger capacity, up to 180 bottles, look at Pure.
No wine cabinet? What then?
If you don't own a serving cabinet, here are some guidelines for chilling a bottle of wine (assuming a refrigerator at 6°C)
From 21 °C to ...
- 15 °C in 1 hour
- 11 °C in 2 hours
- 8 °C in 3 hours
- 6 °C in 4 hours
That way, you can control the temperature for white wine. Of course, you can also apply this trick to the temperature for red wine.
