15 min wine rule

The 15 minute rule

Good advice from the Wine Spectator: “think like Goldilocks”. If you serve a wine too hot, it emphasizes the alcohol. If you serve a wine too cold, you lose the aroma and the flavor. So you want to serve the wine like Goldilocks preferred her porridge: just right.

We’re not suggesting you dip a cooking thermometer into your glass every time you pour. You have a life, right?

Thus, to make it simple, remember the 15 minute rule: For red wine, put the bottle in your refrigerator for 15 minutes, then open. For a white wine that has been sitting in your refrigerator for an extended period, take the bottle out of the refrigerator and wait 15 minutes, then open.

You want the red to cool a bit. And conversely, you want the white to warm a bit.
15 minutes is a generic guideline. Experiment with a few bottles. You’ll quickly figure out your cooling/warming sweet spot. Just make sure you don’t serve your reds at room temperature or your whites at refrigerator temperature. You want to m give your wine a fighting chance to taste its very best.

The 15 minute rule