What are the proper temperatures to serve red and white wines? How about sparking wine?
A common pitfall—even at restaurants, where they should know better—is to serve red wines too warm and white wines too cold. That said, you need to let red wines warm up for an hour or so after removing them from storage, and you may want to put white still and sparkling wines in the fridge for an hour before serving. You don’t want to serve rich white Burgundies or Sauternes too cold, as the cold tends to mute aromas and flavors. Red wine served too warm tends to accentuate alcohol and produce an unpleasant bite on the palate.
