IT’S enough to make the purists choke on their (room temperature) claret.

Shoppers are to be encouraged to keep their red wine in the fridge during the heat wave. An article in Waitrose Food Illustrated tomorrow advises that it is wrong to leave red wine out of the fridge when temperatures rise.

Once the temperature is in excess of 25C (77F) the wine becomes slack, loose and “puddlesome” — or soupy. The heat speeds up the ageing process.

William Sitwell, editor of the magazine, said: “It really is criminal to leave decent bottles out of the fridge. If you serve red wine too cold the textural components are too tight and if it’s too warm, it’s too loose. Red wines at the moment are gagging to get in the fridge, they are pleading to be there.”

Red wine with less texture also tastes better slightly chilled so the magazine recommends that all wine from pinot noir grapes are chilled for half an hour or so. Beaujolais, valpolicella and chianti are even said to improve “by proximity to a well-stored dead chicken”.

David Berry-Green, buyer at Berry Bros & Rudd Fine Wines, believes that it is better to err on the side of frigidity rather than allow wine to overheat. “If a red wine is too warm it breaks apart and one of the ways to prolong its drinking life is to put it in the fridge,” he said.

“This is perfectly true of beaujolais and a few other burgundian wines. Chilling also helps to bring out the style in some of the young wines so they are best served fresh.”

But Tim Triptree, wine specialist at Christie’s auction house, was distinctly sniffy about fine wines being chilled.

He made clear that chilling was only suitable for beaujolais and red wines of the Loire which were traditionally served chilled. His advice is that these red wines should be served at 12C (53.6F), chilled white wines should be served at 5C-6C and other red wines at room temperature of 14C-17C.

Alessandro Baccarelli, deputy sommelier at the Ritz hotel in London, agrees. He said: “I have never been asked for red wine to be served chilled in hot weather or in the 20 months I have been here. I don’t think our guests would like it.”

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