LCBO Food & Drink Summer 2016

No need to tuck away your red wines over the summer; our tips on varietals best suited to the season, optimal temperatures and techniques for chilling—combined with complementary nibbles from our recipe archives—will help you serve chilled reds with aplomb. temperature. But what is room temperature? And what is cellar temperature, come to that? Experts differ. In his Pocket Wine Guide , the great British wine writer Hugh Johnson de- scribes room temperature at 64°F. Most of his Canadian colleagues enjoy a warmer ambience of around 70°F. Johnson’s cellar is chilly at 52°F, compared with Canadian scribes whose cellars vary from 55°F to 60°F. It’s all a bit confusing— and frankly too theoretical on a hot summer’s day when a friend shows up for a barbecue with a red that tastes dull and flabby because it’s too warm. No worries! Help is at hand. Pu��ing on �he Chi� BY JAMES CHATTO  •  PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROB FIOCCA WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING to think about when you’re serving wine? The answer is temperature. It’s the one thing we can actually control and it matters because even a few degrees of difference changes our perception of a wine dramatically. Cooling a red wine diminishes its sweetness and its aroma and emphasizes tannin, spiciness and minerality—which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on the wine.     Light reds are delightful at this time of year and connoisseurs agree they are best served at cellar temperature rather than room

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