On the Proper Temperature of Red Wine

Everyone repeats that red wine should be served at room temperature, and everyone repeating it is wrong, because the room in question was a stone-walled dining room in a country house with no central heating and a draft you could sail a boat through. That room was fifteen degrees. Your kitchen is twenty-three.

Warm red wine tastes of alcohol and regret. The tannins go flabby, the fruit turns to jam, and the whole thing arrives at the palate like a handshake from a man who has just eaten a scone.

Put the bottle in the refrigerator for twenty minutes before serving. Twenty. Set a timer if you must. The wine will emerge at roughly the temperature its maker intended, and you will taste things in it you have never tasted before, which is a strange sensation for a bottle you have purchased many times.

I am aware this contradicts what you were told. A great many things you were told about wine were invented by people trying to sound authoritative at dinner. I am, admittedly, also such a person. The difference is that I am correct.