Weekday wine - 2022 Patient Cottat Le Grand Caillou Pinot Noir

This will come as no surprise perhaps, but you shouldn't serve your red wine at ‘room temperature’. This is a myth that likely started with the idea that long-aged reds were too cold to serve directly from ‘cellar’ and would be best allowed to acclimate to  ‘room’ temperature. Of course, room temperature was not the 70 degrees that we live with today, but a chillier 55-60 degrees. In the modern world, most red wines don’t spend 10 or more years in the 45-50 degree cellar before serving, so we’ve become acclimated to drinking reds at 65-70 degrees (call it closet, rather than cellar temperature).

The fresh and friendly Pinot Noir from the upper Loire Valley is a great example of a red wine that would show best with some refrigeration. Brightly fruity with hints of herbs and crisply finishing acidity, the wine perks up with a chill, making it a sensational red wine choice for these hot summer days. Think of this as a white wine in a red dress and enjoy it with all manners of summer fare, or on its own, on the deck, the cool evening arrives. (PW)