I purchased a bottle of chardonnay for an “after-date.” Should I chill it ahead of time, or does it get served at room temp?
Chardonnay should be chilled, as should all white wines that I can think of. Reds are usually served at room temp, and are allowed to ‘breathe’ before serving.
Good luck with the date;)
In Celcius degrees, sorry:
White : 9 to 12
Soft/sweet white, Champagne : 6 to 8
Red : room temp, preferably not above 17-19.
Rose : 6 to 10
Young wines and “fruity wines” always a little bit colder
Chill / Warm always slowly!
The bottom of your fridge is excellent. No freezer! 
Enjoy the date !
** Chardonnay
Charredonnay ** - Warmed up too fast
thanks, guys
Welll . . . .
Depends on the individual wine. A lot of wineries are starting to make whites a little more ‘complex’ than they had in the past, actually, more like reds. Chilling a wine ‘stops’ whatever subtle flavors exist, which is why whites were chilled; there were more flavors to be hidden than flavors to be tasted. A lot of the Californian (and Austrailian, made in the California style) whites, Chardonnay’s especially, should be served at ‘cellar’ temperature (55 F) instead of chilled to a flavor numbing 40F. One way to prove this is to buy a decent bottle of a California Chardonnay, even something $10-$15 a bottle. Chill it. Pour a glass and taste. Let the bottle warm up to room temperature and try another glass. You’ll be able to taste a lot more than oak and apple (malic acid), usually butter or a tropical fruit. As the wine warms and oxidized, you’ll be able to taste more and more of the subtle flavors.
When I was psych nursing if you had to give a patient something that tasted like shit, you put it in the fridge first. Therefore I’ve always assumed that chilling white wine kills the taste. Seems I’m right.
That’s why you don;t put chocolate in the fridge too.
But with the wine, in 10 minutes in your glass, the temperature is going to get a lot of degrees (C or F ). So by sipping gently, you’ll be able to get the rigth moment when to enjoy the wine.
Same thing with the red and “breathing”. Open the bottle, pour, drink. Let it rest 10 minutes, aerate the wine by turning it in your glass an taste again… Ah! ah! difference ! Especially on old wines.
So when is the date?
"Room temperature"? It’s a joke around here. In the summer “room temperature” is around and often above the 30 deg Celsius (86F) mark. I always cool the wine, white more than red, trying for white around the 17-20 deg Celsius (63-68F), red in the 23-25 deg (73-77F) range. There is no way that I’ll drink warm wine! Ummm, except Glühwein, but that’s a different story.
My dad has fits when I throw an ICE CUBE in a glass of warm white wine. I know it’s wrong, but when I’m not in public, I’ll do it.
A quickie rule of thumb is 20 minutes - Take a refrigerated bottle of white out of the fridge 20 minutes before serving. Pop a room temp red into the fridge for 20 minutes before serving.
I don’t think that’s wrong at all. I do it even in restaurants if I want the drink cold. When I was younger and poorer I used to order wine in restaurants plus a carafe of iced water. We would make the wine go further by adding water to the glass. Many red wines are improved by a splash of water IMHO.
Also, if you have the misfortune of getting a glass of poor tasting wine and still desire to drink it, I’d advise several ice cubes - it makes it much more bearable.
gotpasswords that is what the tour guide said at the Robert Mondavi tour in Napa. Room temp means castle room temp, not 70*.
Ice cube(s) in wine: NO!
Why? It dilutes the wine, and all its delicate flavors.
You kill the breathing effects and all the flavor changes that are happening with the oxydation of the wine.
And of course, you kill the warming up of the wine, which brings different aromas too.
Everybody went to Mc D’s and know the difference of the flavor of the Coke at the beginning and at the end of the meal. It works the same with wine, but worse: wine is pretty much more elaborate than the Mc D’s coke.
The only reason you want to put ice cubes in your wine is the the one ** robo99 ** indicated. But why drinking a poor wine? Drink less, but drink better.
** venterap**, you don’t have AC? 
Oh, I KNOW it’s wrong, but I can’t stand warm white wine, so it gets a cube. A restaurant rarely tries to serve a warm white, so it doesn’t happen in public.
Another tip: Hold your wine glass by the stem; not the bowl, so you don’t artificially heat the wine.
Errm, only the really rich people here have those in their homes. My car has AC, but normally I don’t drink wine in the car - it’s a real bitch trying to pull a cork at 120km/h on a busy freeway…
Also, I think most South Africans are really outdoors people - we actually like the heat, although sometimes it gets a bit OTT. Most afternoons coming from work I switch the AC off, wind down the windows and just enjoy the fresh air wafting (blasting?) through the car.
I won’t go to such depths of depravity as putting ice cubes in the wine (shudder) but I do likes mah wine a wee bit cooler than “room temperature”. Good advice from some other poster, to not put the wine in the freezer, rather the bottom drawer of the refrigerator - I’ll do that from now on.
That’s actually a pretty good guideline, right there.
Ideally, in my experience, red wine should be 5-10 degrees F below room temp (assuming an average room temp of 70F). White wine should be 10-20 degrees F below room temp. Naturally, this should be adjusted to personal taste; the only “rule” about wine is “what you like.”
That being said, if you’re looking to get maximum complexity out of the wine, don’t make it too cold. Straight out of the fridge after long-term storage, you might as well be having a wine cooler. Oh, and don’t leave it in the fridge too long, either; you can kill the flavors that way. A day or two at most is recommended for white wines, I think, though a couple of hours is ideal. Also, don’t chill it, then change your mind and take it out and let it warm up before chilling it again later. Obviously, for cheap, simple wines, damaging nonexistent complexity is not a concern, but good wines will be negatively impacted by such treatment, especially reds, which shouldn’t be in the fridge for more than an hour anyway.
Most mid-level restaurants, I’ve found, serve their wines way too cold, apparently because the average patron doesn’t know any better and expects to get it that way. They’re probably just used to it, since many grocery stores have those coolers with the pre-chilled white wines. Serious wine people avoid buying those bottles, because you never know how long the wine has been sitting in the grocery fridge. Better to get a room-temp wine and chill it yourself.
Enough time given :
** 11811 **, how was the date? and the wine?
Plus those stemmed wine glasses rattle around in those car cup holders.
While we’re giving wine drinking tips, I may as well chip in:
When you are directed to let a wine breathe, this does NOT mean removing the cork and letting the bottle sit. Either properly decant the bottle, or pour glasses. An uncorked bottle is nigh on useless for exposing the wine to air.
Many of the vineyards around here (Niagara penninsula) suggest to cool the wine, but deliberatly allow it to warm up somewhat as you drink it - that is, don’t put it on ice. Part of the experience of their whites is to taste the initial flavours in the chilled wine, and then let it warm up to the apple and butter etc.