There’s nothing better than an
ice-cold drink on a scorching hot day. With summer just around the corner, the
Ideal Wine Company felt inspired to ask; when can you add ice to wine?
Striking a balance
You need to be very careful when
you pair something with wine. The wrong match can offset the subtle balance of
flavours that characterise this complex drink and ruin your favourite vintage.
Let’s take the popular pairing of
wine and cheese as an example. There are certain rules you should follow when pairing
wine with cheese if you want to ensure the vintage in question is cast in
the best light. One rule, for instance, demands that you contrast salty with
sweet; the saltier the cheese, the sweeter the wine needs to be to make a good
match.
Follow storage guidelines
We can apply the same logic to
pairing ice and wine. You should always think about how a particular match will
affect the flavours of the wine, so you should keep in mind when using ice that
it melts, watering down the power of your chosen bottle.
Apart from this, we would say
that there are some instances where it’s OK to pair ice with wine; where doing
so can even enhance the flavour of your drink. Use the Ideal
Wine Company’s guidelines for storing wine as a rule of thumb. You’re
supposed to chill white and rose, but you should store red somewhere warm.
Translation; you can add ice to a white or a rose (especially for a spritzer),
but you should never couple it with red, as the result would offend your taste
buds.
Social conventions
There’s one final element we need
to discuss here; wine snobbery. There are certain social conventions that have developed
over time to govern how people drink wine and this has created an elitist
attitude towards what is an acceptable match for the world’s oldest tipple.
These conventions abhor the pairing of ice with wine.
Personal preference
Ultimately, it’s a matter of
preference. If you feel like plonking a few ice cubes into your glass of dry
white go ahead. However we would advise you to refrain from pairing ice with
reds such as the Chateau
Lafite Rothschild 1978. You should also remember that people may look at
you a little strangely if you add blocks of frozen water to wine; it’s simply not done.
