Serving Temperatures It’s sadly an article of faith that many restaurants, and homes for that matter, will serve white wines too cold and red wines too warm.

It’s easy to see where this comes from. White wines are generally served cooler than reds, and in an era of refrigerators and ice, this has come to mean ice-cold. Reds, meanwhile, are to be served at “room temperature,” a term derived at a time when many rooms had thick stone walls, and the indoor temperature may have hovered around 60 degrees.

Serving whites too cold seriously compromises good bottles, muffling nuances and complexities. Conversely, mediocre whites ought to be served ice-cold; the temperature masks any flaws.

If you are knocking back the house pinot grigio at the corner bar, make sure the bottle comes directly from the refrigerator. For a fine white, though, take it out of the fridge a good half-hour before serving, and in restaurants, do not reflexively allow the bottle to be put on ice. Take its temperature first.

Reds are a bit trickier, depending on the age and texture of the wine. Ideally, a bottle should be slightly cool to the touch. Modern room temperature can often leave a good red seeming flabby or fatiguing. A slight chill is bracing to the wine. Tannic wines served too cold can seem tough and unpleasant. If a bottle seems too warm, 15 minutes in the fridge — or, at a restaurant, 10 minutes in an ice bucket — can work wonders.

For a complicated dish of potato gnocchi with sweetbreads, chanterelles and runner beans, Joe Robitaille of Bar Boulud and Boulud Sud picked two unusual wines: a rich, textured, amber-colored 2009 from Domaine Economou in Crete, made of the obscure vilana and thrapsathiri grapes, and a pinot noir from the Jura, the 2015 Arbois Les Gaudrettes from Domaine de Saint Pierre. These were excellent examples, and each benefited greatly from the correct serving temperature.

Unconventional Food Pairings Few wine issues cause so much anxiety as putting together food and wine. For this reason, I’ve always believed that the conventional wisdom — white wine with fish and poultry, red wine with meat — is not a bad place to start.