When serving a wine the temperature is critical purely in order to maximise the enjoyment of every glass. The effect of chilling a wine is to make it appear more refreshing, which is entirely appropriate for crisp lighter wine styles, but a cold temperature also has the effect of ‘dumbing down' the flavour of a wine. For this reason we would recommend serving a fuller bodied wine with great complexity such as a Chilean Merlot at a warmer temperature than crisp and acidic tasting young Chablis.

We would therefore recommend you drinking your wines at the following temperatures -

• Sparkling and sweet wines - well chilled at 5-8'C
• Medium to full bodied white wines e.g. Burgundy, and lighter red wines such as Valpolicella at 10-12'C
• Light to medium bodied whites such as Pinot Grigio at 8-10'C
• Medium to full bodied red wines e.g. Claret, South African Pinotage, Californian Cabernet at 14-16'C

   But only if you feel you need to be bound by these conventions.

  In reality there really are no rules.