Red Wine, White Wine: When to Chill, When Not to Chill, According to Chateau Thomas Winery in Fishers

True or false: White wine should be served chilled and red wine should not. Did you say "True"? Bzzzz. Wrong answer! Fruity red wines taste best served slightly chilled. Full bodied white wines taste best if they're not too cold. Why is this important? "Improper serving temperature is one of the common reasons people say they don't like a particular wine," says Charles Thomas, winemaker, and founder of Chateau Thomas Winery.

At the Chateau Thomas Winery Tasting Room in Fishers, Indiana, I learned that most red wine and white wine is served at at the wrong temperature. One reason? There is a basic misunderstanding about room temperature. Back when they thought up all this stuff, there was no central heating. So room temperature then was what out-on-the-back-porch is now.

How do you know if you're serving your white wines too cold and your red wines too warm? By the taste. Dr. Charles Thomas of Chateau Thomas Winery says white wine served too cold can be tasteless. On the other hand, a very sweet white wine will taste cloying if warm. A complex red wine may be aggressively bitter, if cold. A fruity red wine needs a chill. It all has to do with molecules.They're pretty immobile when cold. They move and form vapor, aroma and taste when warm. But how are we supposed to remember all this?

Well, let's come up with some slightly simplified, but useful, categories:

Red wine category 1: Complex. Like Burgundy, Bordeau, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Sirah, Syrah, Chianti and Zinfandel.

Red wine category 2: Lighter and fruitier, such as Beaujolais, Pinot Noir, the Rose wines.

White wine category 1; Light and refreshing, such as Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Chenin Blanc, White Zinfandel.

White wine category 2: Richer, full-bodied, such as Chardonnay, White Burgundy, Viogner and Chablis. Of course,champagne and dessert wines are their own categories.

Barely chill the more complex red wines for 45 minutes in the fridge, and let warm for 20 minutes. (Room temperature wine bottle.) They should be served at about 65 degrees, probably about the room temperature in a drafty old castle. Again, these are: Cabernet Sauvignon (Burgundy and Bordeau) Merlot, Petit Sirah and Syrah, Chianti and Zinfandel.

Lightly chill lighter, fruitier red wines about 1 ½ hours, and let warm at room temperature for 20 minutes. (Barely cool wine bottle.) These are the red wines you can chill, including Beaujolais, Pinot Noir, Rose's.

Chill light refreshing white wines for 1 ½ hours in the refrigerator. (Cold wine bottle) These include Reisling, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Chenin Blanc and White Zinfandel. In fact, these are the wines you can keep in the refrigerator. But Dr. Thomas says that if a wine is kept chilled in the refrigerator, then jammed into a bucket with cold water and ice at the table, you should take it right back out. It's already chilled.

Chill the richer, full-bodied white wines for about 45 minutes. (Slightly cool wine bottle.) These include Chardonnay, White Burgundy, Viogner and Chablis.

Chill champagne for 2 hours.

Chill fine dessert wines such as Sauterne for 1 ½ hours. Port and sweet Sherry are served slightly cooler than room temperature.

Quick chill.

Put the bottle in a bucket with ice, water and a handful of salt to chill wine in six minutes flat. (The salt reduces the freezing point.)

Quick warm.

Pour over-chilled red wine into glasses still a little warm from the dishwasher.

If you can't remember what to chill and for how long, here is a rule of thumb. Wine.com quotes Ursula Hermacinski, former Christie's wine auctioneer, as saying: "Twenty minutes before dinner, take the white wine out of the fridge, and put the red wine in." A broad generality, perhaps, but one we can remember.