Tell the wine snobs enjoying a cool red wine from the fridge is simply observing tradition

THE resistance to chilling red wines is at best conservative — and is arguably centuries out of date.

Put it this way: we’re usually told to serve reds at “room temperature”. But have you ever stopped to ask yourself which room they had in mind when they coined that phrase?

Our wine traditions are inherited from centuries past, times when both climate and home comforts were significantly different to today’s conditions. The growing taste for wine and the money to pay for it went hand-in-hand with the growth of the British empire when Cognac, Port and Claret became the drinks du jour.