Top Winter Warmers
When the weather turns chilly, it is natural to reach for the wines that offer comfort either in their extra fruit weight or the fact that they are served at a similar temperature to the room temperature…. or both. Here are some great wines to consider as well as some tips to get the best from your wines this winter.
With or without food!
Often, these wines are needed because the foods we enjoy in winter lean towards being more robust in flavour and richer. Wine lovers sometimes forget that white wines and sparkling wines are still excellent wines to enjoy during winter.
A great example of this is instead of a grilled chicken salad, you might be enjoying a herb stuffed chicken breast served with roasted Mediterranean vegetables tossed in smoked paprika, garlic, tumeric and cumin. Or maybe, you have started back into the roast beef dinners with all the trimmings. Of course, you might simply want to snuggle up on the sofa with something to enjoy while catching up on all the series you missed while enjoying the sunshine over summer.
Either way, there is a vast assortment of wines that match whatever the occasion. For a start, if you enjoy white wine, you can simply choose a fuller bodied white with some careful oak handling. That fuller body better suits the flavours we enjoy more in winter.
What was that about serving temperatures?
These fuller bodied white wines and white wines with oak maturation will also have a better balance in your mouth if served around 8-10 oC. This simply means letting it sit out for about 15 – 30 minutes or so rather than pouring straight from the fridge.
No need for the heavy chill here! At the temperature straight out of the fridge, these wines will seem to have more acid and will lack the softness they have acquired from that time in oak. At the correct temperature, these wines will have a softness and often a supple silky texture.
A great tip here for all wine lovers, is to make sure that your wine is stored in a relatively cool spot in the house. It is worth remembering that ‘cellar temperature’, a phrase used to describe the best serving temperature range for red wines is around 16-18 oC.
What white wine to choose?
Grape varieties such as Chardonnay, Fiano, Viognier are excellent choices here, particularly if they have had some time maturing in oak or at least a few months resting on their ‘lees’ or the dead yeast cells that add complexity and fullness to a white wine or sparkling.
If you are a fan of sparkling wines, this is also a good opportunity to enjoy the vintage sparklings such as Champagne, Cava or Franciacorta. Again, these can be served at 8-10oC and also, the best can be served in a tulip shaped white wine glass to really allow it to show its fuller character. Vintage sparkling wines tend to have a much longer time maturing before they are released for sale. Subsequently, they develop more flavour complexity and roundness than those that are non-vintage wines. This makes them ideal for drinking with food as well as superb drinking by themselves.
Why not try ….
What about the reds?
It goes without saying that most red wine has what it takes to be very enjoyable throughout the year. What is always important here is to choose a wine that has balance. A higher alcohol wine, for example one with 15.5% or higher alcohol may not be a better wine at all as it make lack balance and fresh fruit weight and seem too sweet and alcoholic.
Although, if you are looking for a bolder style this winter, look for wines made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Syrah/Shiraz and Primitivo/Zinfandel.
