White For Summer, Red For Winter - Why?

I hear this question often, and I admit I wonder, too. According to the secret statistical droids we employ, we sell more white wines in the summer and more red wines in the winter. 

But Why?

There are a couple reasons for this. An obvious reason would be that we serve white wines colder than reds, and it's pretty damn hot in the summer. Well at least it is here. Do you really want a warmer wine on a hot, humid day? Not usually. A chilled, crisp, acidic white will do the trick.

The opposite goes for red wine. It is served warmer, and on a chilly day, only a red will work.

Another reason? Food of course. We prefer hearty, heavier, fattier foods in the winter and a cool white wine probably won't stand up the way a medium to full-bodied red will. 

And for summer, think of crisp salads, grilled chicken, seafood, fresh vegetables and fruit. That luscious Pinot Grigio or Vidal Blanc matches perfectly. 

Even without consciously thinking it through, these choices become habit.

Calm Your Horses You Non-Conformist

Before you go a little loco on me, let me say that this is not always the case. We have customers that only drink white wine all year round, and the same goes for red wine drinkers. Also, not all of our reds and whites are created equally. Take our Barn Red for example.

A fruit forward, off-dry red with soft tannins. This is an all year round red that pairs well with burgers, pasta, BBQ and pizza. And our award winning white wine, Yield, has enough body and flavor to stand up to chilly nights and heartier chicken and seafood.

I hope that clears up the red equals winter and white equals summer mystery, but it's not really a mystery at all. Just drink whatever the hell you want. 



One Final Thought


Thinking about serving wines chilled, or not-so-chilled, made me think about proper storage, which made me think about wine cellars. My grandmother had a cellar, though she had no wine, at least that's what I thought. 

Most wine cellars are designed to keep wines at the correct humidity and temperature for proper storage and aging.

And low and behold, I couldn't help but wonder how big they could possibly be. 

So I went to the library and looked at the old dusty encyclopedias. Just kidding. I Googled it of course. What I found was less "cellar" and more "wine cellar city." 

I thought the world's largest wine cellar would be located in France, Italy, or Argentina, but to my surprise, it's in Moldova. It's called the Milestii Mici. 

Now, if you know where Moldova is then good for you, you nerd. But I had to look it up on a map. Moldova is located in Eastern Europe and borders Ukraine and Romania.

Now that I got the geography lesson out of the way, let's talk about the cellar. 

The cellar runs for about 200 km and holds about 2 million bottles. The cellar actually has tunnels and each tunnel is named after a wine grape. You can actually drive a car though the tunnels. This is open to visitors and folks from all over can stroll through the cellar. 

I would have never planned a vacation to Moldova, but it is high on my list now. I would definitely need a map. I wonder if the tunnels are on my GPS? Whatever! I would still get lost, but what better place to get lost than the biggest wine cellar in the world. I wouldn't run out of wine, would I?