Help, my wine is getting warm! The summer tips to get (and keep) your wine at the perfect temperature

It's peak summer! The sun is shining, temperatures are rising, and the desire for a delicious glass of wine on the terrace or in the garden grows by the minute. But this heat brings one major problem: the temperature of your wine.

There's little as disappointing as a lukewarm, sluggish white wine or a red wine that makes you think: "Is this mulled wine?" Yet, in our quest for coolness, we make some significant mistakes. We often chill white wine too much, while we serve red wine almost warm. And how do you actually keep that wine cool when the sun is beating down on your glass?

With these tricks, you'll survive the summer heat like a true sommelier!

The big pitfall: White is too cold, red is too warm

In summer, we tend to think in extremes, but for your wine, that's a waste of flavor.

White wine and rosé: Beware of freezing the flavor To prevent the wine from getting warm, we prefer to bury white wine and rosé under a mountain of ice. But if you serve wine too cold (below 6 to 7 degrees Celsius), the wine 'dies'. You no longer taste the fruity aromas and smell almost nothing. The wine becomes watery, acidic, and flat. What a shame!

Red wine: "Room temperature" is not 25 degrees! The biggest summer myth is that red wine should be served at room temperature. In the past, when houses were poorly insulated and had no central heating, room temperature was about 17 to 18 degrees Celsius. If you're in a warm garden of 25 degrees in summer? Then your red wine is much too warm. Red wine that warms up loses its elegance. The alcohol evaporates faster, making the wine taste heavy, sluggish, and even burning. The tip? Feel free to put your red wine in the fridge for half an hour before opening it in summer. Slightly chilled (around 14 to 16 degrees Celsius), summer red wine tastes fantastic! If you also drink at a relaxed pace, you can easily leave the red wine in the fridge; a glass will warm up quickly anyway.

Pour smartly: Less is more

We all have those beautiful, large wine glasses in the cupboard. They look great, but in summer, they're your biggest enemy, at least when it comes to filling them completely. Wine heats up rapidly in your glass due to the ambient temperature (and the warmth of your hands if you're someone who holds the bowl).

The more you fill the glass, the more warm wine you'll be drinking by the end of your glass. The solution is simple: pour a smaller amount more often. Leave the rest of the wine happily in the fridge or cooler, where the temperature is safe.

Panic! Forgot to chill the wine. Now what?

Unexpected guests arrive, and you're thirsty, but the wine is still on the wine rack. Don't panic; with these two tricks, you'll have cold wine in record time:

Trick 1: The Paper Towel Packet (15 minutes)

Soak a few sheets of paper towel (or a clean tea towel) thoroughly under the ice-cold tap. Wrap this tightly around the wine bottle and place the bottle in the freezer. Because the moisture in the paper freezes rapidly, it extracts heat from the bottle much faster than cold air can. After 15 minutes, your wine will be at the perfect temperature! (Set an alarm just in case, otherwise the bottle might burst).

Trick 2: A bucket of ice with salt (5 to 10 minutes)

The absolute hospitality trick for emergencies. Grab a wine cooler or a bucket. Fill it halfway with ice cubes and top it up with cold water until the bottle is submerged. And then the magic: throw in a generous handful of table salt! The salt lowers the freezing point of the water. The ice melts faster, making the water around the bottle extremely cold (below freezing), without actually freezing. Stir a bit, and within 5 to 10 minutes, your bottle will be at a good temperature.

Let summer (and guests) come. Cheers!