Chill time depends on the wine

Q: What is the best strategy for serving white wine? Chill it and let it warm up? Put it in an ice bucket? Leave it at cellar temperature?

A: Let's talk about dry white wines first. My personal tastes run to less oaky styles, with plenty of acid and perhaps some herbal or mineral qualities. These wines can be very aromatic, so you do not want to over-chill them. Putting white wines in an ice bucket will chill them down to a point where you can't smell much, and that means you are missing out on a lot of pleasure.

With a very fat, oaky chardonnay you may want to leave it in the ice bucket in order to give the wine some spine. And for sparkling wines an ice bucket is a good choice, although I personally don't like to let them sit in there once they have chilled down.

Sweet white wines may be chilled down to Champagne temperatures; then let them gradually warm in the glass.

For most dry white wines I suggest you pop them into the fridge for about an hour, then serve them. You can also put them in the freezer for about a half hour, but set a timer so you don't forget them or they'll push their corks out. An even quicker way is to keep a wine chiller sleeve in the freezer; these re-usable sleeves slip over the bottle and bring it down to the proper temperature in just a few minutes.

It's best not to leave unopened bottles in the fridge for days on end; the humidity is too low and the corks may dry out.

Paul Gregutt answers questions weekly in the Wine section. He can be reached by e-mail at wine@seattletimes.com.