My friend Jim loves big red wine.
You know the kind. High-alcohol. Lots of fruit. Very assertive. Likely to be red blends from California or else “Pinot Noir” whose alcohol content is so out of control that it’s barely recognizable as Pinot.
So at book club last week, when Jim asked me which red wine on the table I thought he would like, I immediately pointed to one of those big red wines. He nodded. I poured. He was happy.
Later in the evening, Jim came back to me and asked why I poured him the wine I did, when it was not the red wine that I had brought. Why, he wondered, didn’t I think that he would like wine I contributed to the table, namely, the 2022 Young Wine from Early Mountain Vineyards in Madison, Virginia?
It’s the difference between “crushable” and “being crushed.”
“Crushable” is how I would describe Early Mountain’s Young Wine. By that I mean it’s fun and not too heavy either on the palate or on the brain power it takes to enjoy it. The French phrase for wines like this is “vin de soif,” or “wine for drinking,” hold the over-intellectualizing. Other good examples of crushable vins de soif are light-hearted Gamay wines from Beaujolais or something in the carbonic fermentation style like the “Love You Bunches” label from Stolpman Vineyards in Los Olivos, California.
Crushable red wines, for me, are ideally served when slightly chilled, particularly in the “shoulder seasons” when the outside temperature transitions from winter to summer or from summer to winter. The weather is still unpredictable or not quite warm enough for rosé or a light white wine like Pinot Grigio or Albariño. The Young Wine from Early Mountain, with its beguiling blend of hybrid grapes (Vidal Blanc and Chambourcin), fits the bill of “crushable” perfectly.
“Being crushed,” on the other hand, is how my friend Jim typically enjoys his red, in terms of heavy and packing a punch. There are occasions for those wines too but for the moment, as we’ve turned the corner into summer’s warmer temperatures, I’m opting crushable every time.
I love chilled red wine.
Always have.
Before it became a fad.
In the early days of my first wine bar, Bar Covell, we'd have chilled reds available because it was more pleasurable in the hot LA months (basically all year)—but also to show wine drinkers it is okay to chill your reds.
There's a stigma lots of wine drinkers have, that they're breaking rules or doing something wrong...truth is, break all the rules and do what feels good.
Room temperature on average in America is way warmer than what is pleasurable to drink red wine! I've always kept my wine in wine fridges, or literally in the food fridge. You'd laugh if you came over to my home and saw how little food and how much wine (and beer) I have in my fridge fridge. It's truly laughable.
And it's not just the lighter reds, glou-glou style, that benefit from being chilled! Give a Rosso di Montalcino a chill. See how your Malbec hits you when it comes straight outta the fridge and into your glass, with a side of grilled steak! You won't be able to get the smirk off your face.
Light, zippy reds at fridge temp hit different. They make the wine glass sweat, it tastes so good when it hits your lips, and I assure you the bottle will be empty at record pace. So always have a backup chilled red. You'll thank me later.
I loved seeing Cathy's Early Mountain Vineyards recommendation, because I am writing this from Virginia. I arrived yesterday and actually get to hang out with the General Manager from Early Mountain tomorrow. It's warming up here and it's definitely the right time to breakout the ice bucket for your red wines, y'all.
If you are worried whether or not a certain red wine is appropriate to chill down, JUST DO IT. NIKE. Thank me later.
Here are some recommendations for reds I love to chill:
2022 Iruai Shasta-Cascade Red from Etna, California
2022 Longaví "Glup!" Cinsault from Itata Valley, Chile
2022 Bernabeleva Navaherreros Garnacha from Vinos de Madrid, Spain
2021 Charles Joguet Chinon "Cuvée Terroir" from Loire Valley, France
To quote Barry Sagittarius from MTV"s The State:
"I cook, and then I chill."
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