Wine with Leslie: It's a myth that red wine has to be room temperature — here's how to chill it

I served two of the wines featured below lightly chilled over the bank holiday weekend

The need to serve red wine at room temperature is in fact a myth that dates from a time before central heating

Dare we dream that the sunny weather might last into June? Let’s hope so. I presume you had the barbecue out over the bank holiday weekend, I certainly did. Marinated spicy pork chops and ribs were the main course I cooked and they worked well with light red wines served chilled.

I served two of the wines featured below, the Ciello Rosso and the Il Casolare, both fine examples of juicy organic wine and both of which I served lightly chilled. Not at fridge temperature of 5 degrees which would be a little too cold and would dull the flavours, but somewhere closer to 9 or 10 degrees. The cooler temperature brought out the dark fruit notes and allowed the wine to cope better with the chilli peppers and paprika in my marinade.