11/11/05 To chill or not to chill?

Welcome to Vine to Wine, this is your host Linda Moran and I don't know why but we are having a lot of email questions about wine in restaurants so on today's program we are going to answer an email question in which a listener ask "How should I handle the ice bucket or lack of in a restaurant? Should we have an ice bucket or not when we have white or rose wine?" Ahhh the age old question - To chill or not to chill. You know most restaurants have already determined their protocol for serving white or rose wines. Most likely the server will assume that if you order a wine that is traditionally chilled that you want it to remain cool throughout the meal and they will bring an ice bucket. Now the one thing to notice is whether or not they set the bottle on top of the ice or plunge it into the ice. My personal preference is that if the white wine is stored in the same cooler as the beer it is probably too cold and we won't need an ice bucket at all. If it is appropriately chill then it probably only needs to be set atop the ice to remain sufficiently cool. Simply let the server know your preference and they should be happy to accommodate you. If on the other hand, if no ice bucket is provided and you would like one, then just ask. Now don't forget, I want to hear from you  tell me about your new favorite wine or your best or worse wine experience. Write to me at Linda at vine to wine dot net and thanks for joining me on today's Vine to Wine.