Readying wine at the ideal temperature

[Mike Buckley]

I just love dispelling myths about wine. As odd as this photo may be, I bring red wine to the ideal temperature in the microwave oven fairly often. Though doing so would be sacrilege to most wine enthusiasts, it works perfectly!

I prefer most red wine served at about 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius) but occasionally get it out of a much colder refrigerator or cupboard at the last minute. To quickly warm up two glasses of wine, I set the microwave oven to 50% power and 10 seconds as a starting point.

The first time I warmed wine in a microwave oven (I remember the exact occasion), I decided that some day I would make a photo of it just for fun. Though this photo looks easy to make even to me, it's actually one of the most difficult photos I've ever made.

It's a composite of three photos: One is of the empty oven lit by a flash. One is with the two wine glasses placed inside the oven and the flash placed behind and in between the glasses. The flash was fitted with a round diffuser and a flag directing the light to the rear, which are part of the SpinLight 360 system that Bobo very recently suggested to me. That flash setup produced the grey outline of the glasses that separates them from the background. The last one is of the empty oven lit with ambient light to obtain the best display of the digital clock and a couple of other details. EDIT: More details about lighting and post-processing are explained in a later post.

The wine is Layer Cake Primitivo (also called Zinfandel) 2011. The brand is consistently the best value I have ever found of that grape at about $13 per bottle.

Please click the photo for viewing it at a larger size to appreciate the appearance of the glasses. EDIT: There is now a second photo displayed later in the thread.

[pnodrog]

Our microwave does not have a popcorn setting - may be I spend to much money on photography.

Lovely photograph of the glasses. I see you have filled them to the similarly disappointing level that the tip demanding wine waiters in all the posh over charging restaurants use but aren't you are at home now?

I often have the other problem when people look aghast at me for putting a red wine in the fridge for about 15 minutes and then taking it out and letting it breath at room temperature for awhile. Yes I always claim it should be served at cellar temperature which probably equates to your 13degC.

[Donald]

Good one, Mike.

I just love dispelling myths about wine. As odd as this photo may be, I bring red wine to the ideal temperature in the microwave oven fairly often. ... it works perfectly!

Absolutely. And an awful lot of restaurants would agree.

In the UK we drink red wine far too warm and white far too cold (straight from the fridge). I'd agree totally with your suggestion of about 13 degrees for red.

[IzzieK]

Mike -- Good shot!

L.Paul -- My husband would love one of those with that one-touch popcorn settings too...

[pnodrog]

Mike -- Good shot!

L.Paul -- My husband would love one of those with that one-touch popcorn settings too...

This a superb thread where we get to discuss things of significant importance.....

[Mike Buckley]

Donald: My experience all over the world is that almost everyone, especially restaurants, serves red wine too warm and white wine too cold. The epitome of white still wine that is too cold is when the waiter attempts to put it in an ice bucket intended for sparkling wine. I once took home the menu of a high-end restaurant in the afternoon and called from my hotel before I left to go there in the evening to tell them to put my order of red wine in the refrigerator so it would be the ideal temperature when I arrived.

L. Paul: When I'm serving a great red wine, I generally decant it hours ahead of time. Once it is decanted, I return it to the bottle and my little wine cellar thingy to get it back to the ideal serving temperature. For all those people who are aghast at putting red wine in the refrigerator, remind them that the idea of serving it at room temperature began centuries ago when room temperature was generally much colder than today. Better yet, tell them that you hope they remain so aghast that they don't drink it, leaving more of it for you.

Thank you, Isabel. I actually don't know if my microwave oven has a popcorn setting but I'm very certain that it doesn't have a red wine setting. EDIT: Yikes! Now I see the popcorn setting that you're talking about.

we get to discuss things of significant importance.....

I suppose there is a more important subject than wine, but I can't immediately think of what that might be.

[Mike Buckley]

Last night I felt that I preferred the look of the photo that I initially posted because it is a little less like a laboratory shot and more like a homey shot. Most important, it's a little less "in your face." This morning I prefer the look shown below because there are no distractions and because, ahem, it's a little more "in your face."

Which one do you prefer and why?

[Donald]

I feel this second one is a bit 'clinical' and , as you say, the first is a bit more homey. But it is going to be about personal preference.

[Kaye Leggett]

No no no no no - you cannot put wine in a microwave.

Oh go on then, you can if only for the shot - which are very good. I am especially impressed with how clean your microwave is - how long did it take to get it that sparkling ? And is Mrs B impressed ? I should think she'll be wanting you take take photos in the oven/fridge/freezer next.

[TonyW]

I like these images and slightly prefer the first. Also, thanks for describing your lighting - I have often wondered.

On a visit to London a few years ago, we distinguished ourselves at a restaurant by asking for an ice bucket for our red wine. It was a hot day and it felt even warmer than room temperature. How do you keep your microwave oven so clean?

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Kaye and Tony.

Mrs. B is not impressed; she thinks I have too much time on my hands. However, Mrs. B doesn't complain about anything in the kitchen. That's because her food preparation is limited to making her morning coffee. I do all of the daily cooking.

I didn't do anything to clean the oven prior to making the photo except that I wiped a small spot off the thingy that is pushed to open the door and I quickly wiped the outside to remove any dust that might have been on it.

Seriously, it's really easy to keep a microwave oven clean: don't let anything spill over the top of the cooking container, place lids over cooking containers leaving only a small part uncovered to allow the steam to escape, and always place a paper towel or plastic wrap on top of food that is being warmed on a flat plate. The additional benefit is that the food cooks or thaws better that way. This particular microwave oven is about 5 years old and is used daily.

By the way, one of the best decisions I ever made when I bought my home in 1985 was to have a cabinet built into the wall to hold the microwave oven. I have a small kitchen where counter space is limited. Removing the microwave from the counter has worked out really great over the decades.

[Manfred M]

These days I just stick my bottles of white wine in a snow bank outside the back door. I'll have to see if I can turn that into an inteesting image.

[Mike Buckley]

Tony liked learning about the lighting so I'll add two more points.

The light that comes on when the oven door is open produced a horrible color cast that I didn't want to have to deal with during post-processing. So, I positioned the camera so the light bulb and the front of its storage unit couldn't be seen on the right side. I then placed gaffer's tape over the bulb's storage unit to prevent any of its light from being part of the image.

I think the reason the ambient light worked to display the digital clock properly is because all of the light sources were in the ceiling (shining from above rather than directly into the digital display). I could have of course positioned the flash above but I didn't see any reason to bother doing that when the ceiling lights were already in the ideal position. However, the stainless steel parts in the top and bottom right corner took on a very strange color cast and I have no idea why. It was really easy to correct the color cast in the bottom piece during post-processing but I couldn't get the top piece even close to right. Then the proverbial light bulb went off in my head: I converted that part to black-and-white and added a blue tint. I would be willing to bet nobody would otherwise know that part of this image is in monochrome.

[Mike Buckley]

Clever idea, Manfred! Do you have to allow the white wine to warm a bit or does the snow act sufficiently as insulation? Does one have to be an engineer to know that this will work?

[Brownbear]

While the 2nd image seems to pop out at one more, I prefer the 1st image because it makes me feel like I can reach inside and pull out a glass of wine. (DOF?) or maybe it is because the numbers and details on the microwave pull my eye away from the wine...

[John 2]

First image for me as well Mike. Now that is an interesting idea. Never thought to use the microwave for this - we use it for just about every thing else. Totally agree that white wine is generally served too cold. Just kills any notes that are there and does a disservice to the vineyard that worked so hard to produce them.

[Manfred M]

Clever idea, Manfred! Do you have to allow the white wine to warm a bit or does the snow act sufficiently as insulation? Does one have to be an engineer to know that this will work?

Unfortunately, a snowback tends to register at 0°C / 32°F, so it is a tad cold for higher quality wines. Cheap, high acid ones seem to do well at that temperature, but the higher end ones need a touch of warming to bring out the bouquet / nose. My plan usually serves the better stuff first and I will make sure that the serving temperature is a bit higher. By the time the guests get into the second or third bottle, we are into the cheaper stuff and don't care...

[Mike Buckley]

Thank you to Christina, John and Manfred for the continued discussion of both the photo and wine.

[dubaiphil]

Nice, Mike.

We are lucky to have a wine fridge at home (a.k.a Mummy's special fridge) which does the job for white/rose and red

[Stagecoach]

My initial reaction when seeing this picture was what an unusual thing to use a microwave for and then remembered an incident from many many years ago when me and a couple of friends used a microwave for something else out of the norm.

When microwaves were first introduced the chief engineer of the vessel I was on went up the road one lunchtime and purchased one for our bar coffee and tea making area. For us young lads bars were for drinking beer, wine and spirits and we took no interest in this shiny new machine.

The chief engineer returned from yet another shopping expedition the following day at lunchtime and showed us a microwave leakage tester he had purchased and explained that he would set up a routine for testing the microwave weekly.

He left the tester on the bar and disappeared and following a few more drinks me and my mates decided to try this leakage tester, switched on the micro moved the tester around the edges but nothing registered.

So how do you know if the leakage tester is working or not? The answer is not to put it inside the microwave to see if the needle moves.

Grahame