Hey guys, question from a new guy here who's relatively new into wines (been into 'em for 13 months or so, have tried somewhere in the range of 500-600 different wines, 50 or so varietals).

I bought a white southern rhone wine (a white chateauneuf-du-pape, guessing it's mostly Roussanne but not sure) recently to pair with a steak recipe I have for a friend who doesn't drink reds. Though I have a littany of authoritative resources with which to find ideal serving temperatures for wines, I have yet to find anyone who sems to know what the ideal temp to serve a white Chateauneuf-du-Pape is.

Do any of you guys have an idea? I'm completely lost here, and don't want to serve what sounds to be such a beautiful wine too warm or too cold.

Thanks for any help you can give

This is one of those things that IMHO some people obsess about way too much. There's no correct answer, and no "perfect" serving temperature. Some people may prefer it on the cold side, right out of the ice bucket, and others may think it better near room temperature. That may vary, too, with the day (hot summer day vs. cold winter night) and the accompanying food (hot or cold, light or heavy, spicy or mild).

Stick the wine in the fridge for a couple of hours, open it, pour a couple of small glass, and leave the bottle on the counter (unless it's a hot day). The wine will warm in your glass, more slowly in the bottle, and you'll have the pleasure of seeing the wine change as it does.

The ideal temperature is where the drinker finds it most pleasurable.

Agree with Doug on this one..It's personal preference. For me as a general rule, I like mine more cellar then fridge temp. The acids seem to be out of balance if they're too cold. With that said, I also do what Doug suggested..put it in the fridge for a couple hrs, then let it warm up in the glass.

Well, guess I'm going with Winetech on this one... I am much more of a fan of cellar temp with most whites, and agree with the "balance" comment. With a Rhone like this, it'd be somewhere in the high 50's. I'll put it out there at about 55 and see where it goes from there as it warms in the glass. Would be interesting to see how it opens up anyway, I suppose. Thanks for the quick thoughts.

- Ross

Every now and then you hear about blind (-folded) tastings in which people are not able to distinguish between a red and a white wine.

White CdP's may certainly produce such a problem and deserve to be treated as would be a quality red.

Serving such a wine to cold takes away half the complexity and that's a shame.

Serve the young sauvignons chilled on a hot day and enjoy them that way. But not this one.

In fact: what the others wrote... But I wanted to add a few lines, just for the fun of it.

quote:

Originally posted by Rossodio:
Well, guess I'm going with Winetech on this one... I am much more of a fan of cellar temp with most whites, and agree with the "balance" comment. With a Rhone like this, it'd be somewhere in the high 50's. I'll put it out there at about 55 and see where it goes from there as it warms in the glass. Would be interesting to see how it opens up anyway, I suppose. Thanks for the quick thoughts.

- Ross

So what CDP was it and how was it?

Cold is an anesthetic. Drinking a wine right of the ice bucket is wrong unless you don't really want to taste it. In that case, I highly recommend it.

I like to serve my whites at 57 degrees right out of my cellar. Most Americans drink their whites too cold.