LCBO Food & Drink Summer 2016

HOW TO CHILL YOUR REDS  It’s July. Impatient friends are waiting with empty glasses. So how are you going to get that bottle of Beaujolais down from a soupy 65°F to a refreshing 55°F—and quickly? Don’t even think about the freezer. You could put it in the bottom of the fridge for about an hour and 15 minutes. Better yet, fill an ice bucket with a mixture of ice and cold water and pop the bottle in up to its shoulder. Its temperature will drop by one degree every minute. Ten minutes, and it’s ready. (Don’t just put ice in the bucket and shove the bottle in—it takes much longer to chill). Then you can keep it cool during lunch with a simple cylindrical plastic cooler.

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Lighter red wines are great for a summer lunch or barbecue. Chill them to a few degrees below the ambient temperature so that they feel refreshing without losing too much of their natural fruitiness. Because they are unoaked and light in tannins, there’s no danger of increasing astringency and bitterness that can occur when you chill a full-bodied tannic red.

Beaujolais is a classic example of a chillable red—Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages ( LCBO 122077, $13.95), for instance, is all nimble, innocent, cherry-flavoured charm. Château des Charmes Gamay Noir VQA ( LCBO 57349, $13.95) is like Beaujolais’s older Canadian brother, made from the same grape and with more spicy complexity behind its bright sour-cherry smile.    Other light reds also respond well to five or 10 minutes in the ice bucket. The food-friendly acidity of Masi Bonacosta Valpolicella Classico DOC ( LCBO 285585, $15.00) rises up through the wine’s floral, morello-cherry flavours when it’s cooled. Fontanafredda Briccotondo Barbera Piemonte DOC ( LCBO 372987, $14.95) is barrel-aged, and a lower temperature brings out more oak spice beneath the damson and blackberry aromas.

FOOD & DRI NK SUMMER 2016 105