Oh for a draught of (cooled) vintage

The pub chain Chef & Brewer has produced a list of wine gaffes which cause embarrassment including (shock, horror) the customers who send back red wine because it is warm, writes Peter Rhodes.

The sniffy assumption by Chef & Brewer is that red wine should be served warm. But should it?

A member of the aristocracy once told me, as we shivered in his vast dining hall, that this was the traditional "room temperature" at which red wine should be poured.

It was much cooler than your average pub restaurant.

His suggestion was that a lot of red wine is served too warm.

The customer who asks for a luke-warm red Bardolino to be cooled is not an ignoramus but someone who knows his wines.