There is a lot of discussion today regarding the subject of chilling your wine. The old standard rule was to chill white wines, but never chill a red wine. Today, along with a lot of other old wine concepts, that axiom is changing.

The issue is temperature.  The warmer a wine, the more we taste all of the flavors, good and bad.  The cooler the wine, the flavors and aromas become more subdued.  Even in the best wines, not all flavors are born equal and when they warm up, unruly ones can dominate or destroy the structure or balance of even excellent wines.  The importance of chilling is most obvious with whites - they are undrinkable when warm.  For example, the oak in the Chardonnay seems to separate out into a resinous slick, while the fruit tastes fat, almost rancid, instead of buttery.  But chill it, and the fruit, oak and acidity come together and you have one of the great wines. 

Reds are much more palatable at room temperature but the same firming up of the flavor and consolidation of the acidity and fruit that we all recognize with whites will also happen with reds.  By chilling reds you insure their balance and structure and therefore their ability to stand up to food.  How much you chill a red depends on the wine itself.  If you have a wine cellar or wine refrigerator that keeps your wine around 60 degress or less, you don't need to chill your reds any further. Just take it out of the cellar and enjoy; otherwise, chilling your reds before drinking will improve the flavor.

Here are some guidelines:

• Beaujolais should not be put on ice or it will taste like alcoholic Kool-Aid.
• A red burgundy wants just enough chilling to firm it up.  Reds have a nice fruit but they have a morning after quality when they're too warm.  Don't chill them too much, however, or you will kill the delicate flavors.  So, grab it off the ice after about 5-minutes.

What should you do with some of the other reds?  Cabs, Shiraz and Syrah, and to a lesser extent the Rhones, should all be chilled to bring out the oak, fruit and a reasonable level of acidity.  Be careful, however, for serving reds too chilled is worse than serving them at room temperature.  For that reason be careful about using the fridge as the source of coolness because we often forget that the bottle is in there.  An ice bucket will work well.  Otherwise, just set it out on a cool evening if you have one handy.  If you've uncorked it or decanted it make sure you cover it to keep out any interested insects from taking the plunge.