Why you're serving your white wine too cold and your red wine too warm
The internet is full of suggestions on how to get the most out of your wine. Some are useful, others pointless and long-winded. I dislike rules in wine but the 20- or sometimes 30-minute rule is simple and something I do most days. I just didn't realise it was a 'rule'. The idea is straightforward: take your white wine out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving and pop your red wine in the fridge for the same period.
Why? Most people and most restaurants serve their white wines a little too cold, and most of their red wines a bit too warm. A very cold bottle of white wine will smell and taste of very little. Let it warm up a while and you will get so much more flavour. Six to 10 degrees is perfect for fresh light whites and sparkling wines, 10-12 for richer white wines. A fridge is usually about two to four degrees.
A red served too warm will seem alcoholic and sometimes a bit soupy. Serve it too cold and it taste a little harsh and astringent. Somewhere around 16-18 degrees is about right.
When books mention serving a red wine at room temperature, they are referring back to Victorian times when rooms did not have central heating and were distinctly cooler. If you are lucky enough to own a cellar or wine fridge, you could take the bottle out 15 minutes before serving. There was a fashion for leaving cold red wines beside a roaring fire. This is not a great idea as the wine would end up tasting horrible. Instead, put it in a plastic bag, and immerse it in a basin or sink of lukewarm water.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Times
8 hours ago
- Irish Times
Is there any tax disadvantage to gifting my children money now rather than as inheritance?
Can you give up to €400,000 to each of your children as a gift while you are alive but they use their €400k inheritance tax free allowance so that they pay no tax now. They have not received any inheritance to day (only the €6k per annum from my husband and myself). I do understand that when we die all of their inheritance will be subject to 33% tax but feel they could do with the €400k now for house deposits. Ms J.G. READ MORE Well this is refreshing. Not that you have €400,000 to gift each of your children though that is certainly their good fortune but that you are alert to considering when such a tax free gift might best be of use to them. The tax rules are very clear. Your children are entitled to receive a certain amount by way of gift or inheritance without liability to tax. Everyone is but the amount that can be gifted or inherited tax free is far higher for children receiving from their parents than any other group. The actual threshold can change from time to time but, right now, it is €400,000. This is called the Category A tax free threshold. Category B, which governs gifts and inheritances received from a blood relative – a sibling, grandparent or aunt/uncle – is just €40,000. Category C, which covers all other relationships, is half of that again, €20,000. The thing to remember is all of these are 'lifetime' limits, covering everything a person has received since December 5th, 1991. So, if someone gets an inheritance from one parent of, say, €50,000, they have just €350,000 left for any future parent inheritances and gifts. If the tax-free thresholds change, that might change, as your allowance is always measured against the tax-free threshold in place at the time the beneficiary receives their gift or inheritance. As you note in your query, when it comes to gifts, it is also important to remember that the first €3,000 of any gift from any person is not counted against their lifetime tax-free limit as it is covered separately under something called the small gift exemption. If both parents are party to the gift, the exemption is €6,000, as the beneficiary is entitled to receive €3,000 from any individual and clearly the parents count as two individuals. But the small gift exemption counts strictly against gifts given in a particular tax year. So, for instance, your child cannot receive a gift of €12,000 from you and your husband to help with a house deposit and then suggest to the tax authorities that it covers this year and next. That wouldn't work. In that case, €6,000 comes under the small gift exemption and the remaining €6,000 is marked against their lifetime limit. The small gift exemption is a really tax efficient structure for parents and even grandparents or other family looking to give a financial hand to children or younger relatives – at least for those fortunate enough to have the financial wriggle room to consider it. Of course, for the parent or other benefactor, this gift is coming from after-tax income. A gift of even €1,000 per parent per year over a couple of decades of a young person's life would give them a pot of €50,000 at the age of 25 even without any investment gain – a handy pot for a deposit on a first home. In your case, you are fortunate enough to be in the position to consider handing over €400,000 to each of your children while you are still alive. There is absolutely nothing to stop you doing so: the only reason more people don't consider substantial lifetime gifts is that they frankly would not have anything like the resources to be able to do so. For most people, the money they will leave their children is locked up in their own home. Whether it make sense to do so is another thing and one only you can judge. You mention house deposits but €400,000 would buy a home mortgage free outside Dublin according to Central Statistics Office figures showing the average price of property at €364,000. Even in Dublin, where the average is €450,000 in the first quarter of this year, it would leave a young couple almost mortgage free. While big mortgages can certainly be a burden, there is a valuable financial discipline for young adults in learning how to manage finances, including managing debt. Paying a mortgage also provides a credit history which can be useful down the line. It might be worth considering whether, while a financial helping hand now is useful in funding a first home, a windfall at a future date might also be welcome as your children face college costs for any children they have or, indeed, allow them to give those children a helping hand with their own home deposits. It is certainly worth weighing up the merits of giving, say, half that sum now so that a similar amount would remain available to them. Of course, even if you do proceed with this gift in full and with capital acquisitions tax (CAT) on future inheritance, your children will still benefit from two-thirds of whatever future inheritance comes their way from either of you given the current CAT tax rate of 33 per cent. For now, on the tax side, from your children's perspective, as they have received no inheritance from either of you to date and no gifts in excess of the €6,000 between the pair of you each year, they will have no tax to pay on the gift. There is certainly no tax disadvantage either to you or your children in choosing to gift now rather than them waiting for an inheritance. What they will have to do, however, is file a return with the Revenue. This is obligatory once a beneficiary passes the 80 per cent mark of each of the three thresholds. It is determined not by the size of the individual inheritance or gift but the cumulative impact of large gifts and inheritances down the years. The return is made via an IT38 form. This is available online from Revenue through either the myAccount or ROS platforms, whichever is relevant to each of your children. There is also a paper form alternative. Hopefully, such a gift will give them considerably more than a house deposit but certainly, used wisely, it could help them enormously in those early adult years when they are investing in their future, and possibly juggling childcare costs that remain a real financial burden on many families. As you say, unless the threshold rises from the current level, your €400,000 gift means each child will pay tax at 33 per cent on any future inheritance from either you or your husband. But the money – or at least some of it – is probably more use to them now than in will be in what could be many years time when you die. Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, 24-28 Tara Street Dublin 2, or by email to with a contact phone number. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice
Irish Times
13 hours ago
- Irish Times
Persecution of Irish Catholics led to foundation of Irish Francisan landmark in Rome
This week marks the 400th anniversary of St Isidore's College in Rome as an Irish Franciscan landmark and Ireland's national church in the city. On June 13th 1625, Waterford man and Franciscan priest Fr Luke Wadding signed a contract taking over the building and, during the following week his Irish brother Franciscans moved in. They've been there since. At the time, Catholics faced severe persecution in Ireland leading to a multitude of Irish Colleges emerging across Europe, including St Isidore's, to provide formation for exiled Irish clergy. St Isidore's origins are shared by Ireland with Spain, as reflected in the sculptures of two saints on the building's Rococo facade: St Isidore of Madrid and St Patrick of Ireland. READ MORE It began in 1622 when a group of Spanish discalced Franciscans founded a convent dedicated to the newly canonised Isidore, a farmer and holy man from the 11th century. However, they soon ran into debt and had to abandon their incomplete home, near Piazza Barberini. Fr Wadding, living in Rome at the time, offered to take over St Isidore's on condition he could turn it into a seminary to train Irish Franciscan priests for service in Ireland. In addition to completing the church, he enlarged the building – originally designed to house 12 men – to accommodate 60 friars. Within five years he had paid off debts accumulated by the Spanish, through donations from benefactors which included Pope Urban VIII. Although it retained the name of the Spanish saint from Madrid, Fr Wadding was keen to underline the Irishness of the new college, as evidenced by the frescoes of Ireland's patron saints – Patrick and Bridget – on either side of the entrance to the church, beneath old Irish script from an 8th century text. Restorers from the Italian Ministry of Culture recently discovered that the fresco of St Patrick was initially beardless, in keeping with early iconography of the saint. Current guardian of St Isidore's, Fr Mícheál Mac Craith, said adding the beard was Fr Wadding's way of presenting Patrick to the Vatican 'as an Irish Moses, a patriarchal figure. So, the beard added that necessary gravitas.' A large fresco in the college's Aula Magna depicts scholars at St Isidore's studying in the library, with a long Latin inscription underneath asserting that the Irish nation, destroyed at home by Cromwell, was being recreated in Rome through the scholarship of Irish Franciscan exiles. A recent five-month restoration of the Patrick and Bridget frescoes was completed just in time for St Patrick's Day last March, when the city's Irish community crowded into St Isidore's beautiful church. At Mass that morning, Fr Mac Craith paid tribute to Fr Wadding for his role in founding St Isidore's but also for his crucial part in establishing Ireland's national day in 1631. He noted how 'up to then St Patrick was just a local Irish saint. But Wadding insisted and prevailed on the Vatican to mandate that the feast of St Patrick be celebrated all over the world and not just at home: from Derry to Dubrovnik, from Limerick to Lesotho, from Roscommon to Rwanda.' Fr Mac Craith also pointed out that 'with its verses in Old Irish, St Isidore's is the only church in Rome that uses its vernacular language in its portico. It would seem that when Wadding came here, he wanted to make a very strong statement: `this is an Irish establishment'.' Prof emeritus of Modern Irish at the University of Galway, Fr Mac Craith believes the prominent depictions of Patrick and Bridget also served to make the point that: 'Ireland is a separate kingdom; it has its own saints and its own language: the Irish have come to town.' Fr Wadding can also take credit for St Isidore's church being home to stunning examples of 17th-century Italian art, achieved by hiring the best Roman artists of the day with financial assistance from Spanish patrons. As part of a long-standing tradition, the St Patrick's Day Mass in Rome is presided over each year by the rector of Rome's Irish College, which Fr Wadding founded in 1628 for the training of diocesan priests. He accomplished all of this within a decade of arriving in Rome in 1618, at the age of 30, following studies in Lisbon. His arrival in the Eternal City came about after King Philip III of Spain chose him as theological adviser to a delegation sent to petition Pope Paul V to define the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, that Mary was born without original sin on her soul. The mission failed and the royal delegation returned to Spain, but Fr Wadding stayed on in Rome where he would spend the rest of his life. He also never lost sight of the reason for his original mission and his work would prove fundamental to the eventual definition of the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of the Catholic Church in 1854. Fr Wadding, who served as rector at St Isidore's for 30 years, was also Ireland's first ever accredited ambassador. In 1642, the Confederation of Kilkenny appointed him as their representative in Rome. He died on November 18th 1657, aged 69 and is buried in the crypt at St Isidore's. Andy Devane is editor of the monthly magazine Wanted in Rome. This is an edited version of an article he wrote and published in the magazine to mark the 400th anniversary of the Irish Franciscans at St Isidore's.
Irish Times
14 hours ago
- Irish Times
Why you're serving your white wine too cold and your red wine too warm
The internet is full of suggestions on how to get the most out of your wine. Some are useful, others pointless and long-winded. I dislike rules in wine but the 20- or sometimes 30-minute rule is simple and something I do most days. I just didn't realise it was a 'rule'. The idea is straightforward: take your white wine out of the fridge 30 minutes before serving and pop your red wine in the fridge for the same period. Why? Most people and most restaurants serve their white wines a little too cold, and most of their red wines a bit too warm. A very cold bottle of white wine will smell and taste of very little. Let it warm up a while and you will get so much more flavour. Six to 10 degrees is perfect for fresh light whites and sparkling wines, 10-12 for richer white wines. A fridge is usually about two to four degrees. A red served too warm will seem alcoholic and sometimes a bit soupy. Serve it too cold and it taste a little harsh and astringent. Somewhere around 16-18 degrees is about right. When books mention serving a red wine at room temperature, they are referring back to Victorian times when rooms did not have central heating and were distinctly cooler. If you are lucky enough to own a cellar or wine fridge, you could take the bottle out 15 minutes before serving. There was a fashion for leaving cold red wines beside a roaring fire. This is not a great idea as the wine would end up tasting horrible. Instead, put it in a plastic bag, and immerse it in a basin or sink of lukewarm water.
