Even the world’s finest wines can be awful unless they are properly served. There are even certain wine glasses (Riedel) specially designed to direct the flow over the tongue to pass over just the right taste buds. Too much for me. At home I just use plain tumblers. Most of my French wine grower friends use tumblers too. Temperature is an important variable that affects taste. Alcohol, one of the essential ingredients in wine, tastes different as the temperature varies. If too warm, wine tastes hot, sharp and burns the palate. When they said to serve wine at “room temperature” they meant 17th century French rooms, at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. That is the best temperature to serve the chateau bottled Bordeaux wines.

When I first opened the Black Sheep, we were the best and first openly gay restaurant in the US. I made a point of buying the best wines available to stock a respectable wine cellar. I got into the good graces of Frank Prial, the wine critic of The Times. By some happy miracle we got two stars from The Times, and were jammed for a year. Celebrities from Leonard Bernstein, Bette Davis and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. were dining in our dinky chairs. These were some of the best years of my gay life. I was just a nobody, struggling to learn whatever I could.

One busy evening the phone rang. “This is Gov. Carey, I am dining with Miss Ford. My car is a block from your restaurant. I’d like a table.”

Heart attack time. We were already so overbooked; I couldn’t make room for a mouse in that room, not even for him.

I explained I couldn’t accommodate him, and about the review, which he knew about. He said okay and promised to return the following day.
He ordered two bottles of Chateau Margaux, one of my best. My wine list was indeed bringing in the right people. I served it myself, opening and decanting it. He tastes, and asks if I would mind bringing an ice bucket for the wine. I raced to the kitchen to prepare the buckets. Those were the days when I knew next to nothing about wine, and thought “this silly man knows nothing if he wants his wine chilled.” Behind the scenes I was muttering what no one could hear if he wanted an ice cube, but I was the know-nothing; ridiculing this man, a gentleman and a wine expert. Shame on me. It was summer, the wine was indeed too warm, and the alcohol, the most volatile element in the wine had become prominent in the taste, and would have overpowered all the other flavors, burning the palate. The heat had clearly damaged the wine. Serving it that way was unforgivable.
All of the elements in wine need to be in balance, or there is no point to the exercise. Fruit, the taste of the grape, is essential to wine being what it is. Good wine where the fruit, or grape, is apparent, places you side by side with Bacchus, I’ve been there.

So when the temperature rises, the alcohol takes over, giving the wine a burning, unpleasant taste. In short, it is out of balance.

You know the restaurant wine ceremony where the server pours you a few drops, you taste, nod and then the wine is poured. But what if you don’t really like the stuff and you nodded your approval instead of saying you aren’t sure you like it. Too many of us, including me, have done this to avoid what could be an uncomfortable moment. We’ve done ourselves a great disservice. Wouldn’t it be better if we’d just say something like, “I’m sorry, I don’t know a lot about wine, but I just don’t like the way this tastes.” Be ready for some jerk of a server to tell you it tastes good to him. Be ready to tell him it tastes like crap to you, and please send you something else. This takes guts, but remember he took that fatal step by forgetting who was paying and who is the customer. What I’m saying is that you are the boss. Remember that. Once you get through that one time you will be your own confident person.

Thanks to the death of an ancient GE fridge at my home, combined with the excellent seafood menus at our local restaurants, I’ve been dining out a lot this summer. Besides, cooking is no fun without my faithful Blondie at my feet. My usual beverage is a glass of Pinot Noir, slightly chilled. It goes well with any food, especially the light, tasty dishes at the Blue Whale, or with Marco’s authentic, soul satisfying pastas. This complex dry wine has raspberry-vanilla-cherry flavors, and an exotic nose; it is the grape of the greatest Burgundy vineyards in France. A versatile red wine that doubles served either as a white wine or a red, and its delicious chilled. American wines unlike their French (12 percent) counterparts are very high in alcohol, nearly 15 percent. My last six meals at our excellent Pines restaurants included glasses of California Pinot Noir, which were served so warm I swore it was stored by the kitchen door. I hated to complain, so I shut up and suffered.

I can’t fault the excellent servers, but management should know better. A good chef should oversee his wines as carefully as he does other ingredients.
Listen to me. Wine is just another food. Order your wine as it deserves to be: in this case, slightly chilled. Stand your ground. They might look at you askance, but don’t worry, they’ll learn, and recognize you as a connoisseur. Quality of life here will improve.