1934 What Shall We Drink by Magnus Bredenbek

Red Wines IM its temperature to be exactly at "room" height. But never try to warm wines at radiators,in warm water,or near any artificial heating apparatus. Port, Sherry, the various Rhone reds from the French river district, the Burgundian reds; Zinfandel, Benedictine, Chianti, Grignolino and the other red Itafian wines, should be at room temperature; as also the red Califomian wines, which, by the way,hke the red wines from New York, New Jersey and Ohio,are becoming more and more acceptable as substitutes for the imported wines and are greatly improved over the products of the pre-Prohibition period, when they seemed to lack the graciousness offoreign productions. The sweeter types should be served in tulip or spheroid glasses much smaller than those used for the "dry" types of red wines,and this applies, also, to the sweet white wines,as discussed in the next chapter. Red Sparkling Burgundy should be dulled but not made too cold when served, lest its fine fruity flavor be lost. It should be a shade above the temperature at which Cham pagne is served. It should be served in a wide mouthed shallow, hollow- stemmed glass slightly smaller than the usual Champagne glass. In this, as in other chapters deahng with wines, I must urge you never to shake the bottle,lest you stir up the lees or dregs and impart a cloudy appearance or bitter dreg taste to an otherwise delicious beverage. It might be well, if you pour at table, to place a damp napkin around the neck of the bottle, to catch any drippings after pouring. This will avert unsightly stains on your table linen. Of course,one may avoid serving from the bottle at table by previously pouring wine from bottle into decanter and serving from the decanter. Or, ofttimes, glasses may be filled awayfrom the table and servedfrom atray,if one wishes to be lessformal. Icannot refrain,atthis point,from adding mostemphatic ally to previous comment about serving wines at proper tem peratures. Improper chilling or heating may rob a wine of