Four Things I Can’t stop Thinking about: Wine Tips and Teasers

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May 26

Four Things I Can’t Stop thinking about: Wine Tips and Teasers:

A brain dump of everything I've been thinking about — and why it all matters for what's in your glass.

## Let's Just Be Real for a Second

This episode is a little different. There's no guest, no single focus, and honestly — no apologies for that. If you've been listening for a while, you know I have a lot rolling around in my brain at any given time. So instead of holding back, I decided to just let it all out in one gloriously chaotic episode I'm calling "Odds and Ends."

We're covering four things: a wine temperature hack that is genuinely going to change your summer drinking, a major wine history anniversary you should know about, a new wine app that has my full attention, and something I've been building behind the scenes that I am so close to finally launching. Let's get into it.

The Wine Temp Truth Nobody Told You

Here's the thing I notice all the time, especially heading into summer: most people drink red wine too warm and white wine too cold.

I know. It sounds backwards. But stick with me.

Red wine should be served around 60–65°F. Not your living room temperature (which is usually 70°F), and definitely not the 80–90 degrees it gets to outside on a warm day. When red wine is too warm, the alcohol feels harsh and "hot," and all those delicate aromas — the floral notes, the hints of berry, the subtle complexity — they just shut down. Temperature directly affects how aroma compounds release and how your palate perceives the structure and weight of the wine. Science, not opinion.

The fix is simple: if you have a wine fridge, you're probably already pulling it out at the right temp (wine fridges typically hold at 55–60°F, so it warms up to that sweet spot on the counter). No wine fridge? It is completely fine to put a bottle of red in the refrigerator for 10–15 minutes. Especially lighter reds — Pinot Noir, Grenache, Gamay — actually love a little chill. Try our Sollevato Grenache slightly chilled this summer. You're welcome.

White wine, on the other hand, needs to come up a little. Right out of the fridge is too cold — around 38–40°F — and those cold temperatures suppress aromas and flavors significantly. The ideal drinking temperature for whites is 50–55°F. Pull it out of the fridge about 10–15 minutes before you pour. Try this experiment: taste it right from the fridge, then wait a few minutes and taste it again. You'll notice more. I promise.

The one exception? Sparkling wine and Champagne love to be cold — right around 45°F. So here's your easy cheat sheet for the summer:

- Sparkling: 45°F

- White: 55°F

- Red: 65°F

One more thing: this is why traditional wine glasses have stems. Holding the stem keeps your warm hand from heating up the bowl and the wine inside it. Stemless glasses are more practical (trust me, I have two dogs with very enthusiastic tails and a coffee table), but that's the original purpose. Now you know.

And please — put the ice cubes down. Dilution is real, and your wine will taste like a sad, watered-down version of itself. A few minutes in the fridge is all you need.

This Month Marks 50 Years Since Everything Changed for California Wine

May 2026 is the 50th anniversary of the Judgment of Paris — and if you make or drink California wine, this is your heritage.

In May 1976, a British wine merchant named Steven Spurrier organized a landmark blind tasting in Paris. Nine French wine experts served as judges. The wines? A mix of top California bottles and prestigious French bottles — submitted side by side with no labels, no names, no prices. Just wine in a glass.

California won. Both the Chardonnay and the Cabernet Sauvignon categories went to California wines. The judges — who had no idea what they were tasting — were shocked. Spurrier himself was reportedly shocked. And France? Let's just say the French wine establishment did not take it graciously.

What this tasting did was enormous. It put California on the world wine map. It proved that quality wine could come from outside the traditional French regions. It reinforced the integrity of blind tasting — when you remove the label, the prestige, and the price tag, the truth comes through. And perhaps most importantly, it democratized fine wine and inspired "New World" wine regions across Australia, Argentina, and South Africa to believe they could compete at the highest level.

And for those keeping score: the tasting was recreated for the 30th anniversary in 2006 by Time Magazine. California won again. In 2012, same result.

If you want to explore this story in a fun, accessible way, check out the 2008 film Bottle Shock — a loose Hollywood retelling starring Chris Pine and Alan Rickman. Fun fact: most of the filming, including scenes set in France, took place right here in Sonoma County.

This is why I live where I live. And why I'm proud to make wine here.

White Wine Is Now Outselling Red in the U.S. — Are You Surprised?

I subscribe to Karen MacNeil's newsletter WineSpeed — Karen is the author of The Wine Bible and one of my instructors from the Culinary Institute. She recently shared something that stopped me in my tracks: for the first time in the U.S., white wine sales have overtaken red wine sales.

I find that fascinating. Are you someone who used to be a red wine drinker and has shifted toward white? I genuinely want to know. Send me a note at nikki@sipwithnikki.com — I'm curious about what's driving this trend.

Karen also shared a stat from a 2026 wine survey of 1,350 U.S. wine drinkers: 40% reported using AI for wine recommendations and were happy with the results. Which leads me perfectly to...

The New Wine App I’m optimistically curious about…

You've heard me talk about Vivino — scanning a label, pulling up reviews, all of that. There's a new app called Sommo (S-O-M-M-O) that does that and more. The differentiator? It uses AI to learn your preferences over time and makes increasingly personalized wine recommendations the more you use it.

I'm getting ready to interview the software engineer and wine lover who created Sommo for an upcoming episode of Sip with Nikki. I'm genuinely excited to dig into how the AI component works, how it's different from what's out there, and whether it truly helps people find wine they'll love. Stay tuned — that episode is coming in the next few weeks.

It's Finally Happening: Sip with Nikki :The (Virtual) Tasting Room

Okay. Here's the big one.

I've been talking about this for a long time, and I'm finally doing it. I'm launching a virtual tasting room membership — and I want your input before it goes live this summer.

Here's the concept: members will join me on Zoom for regular live tastings of wines from around the world. I'm partnering with a company called Vinebox, which makes curated wine tasting kits featuring 100ml vials — almost like a large test tube of wine. That's a real, generous tasting pour, and it means we don't have to open five full bottles at once. I'll customize boxes that I'll send to members ahead of each tasting, so we're all sipping the same wine at the same time, together, live.

What excites me most about this isn't just the wine — it's the community. After 100+ episodes of podcasting, I love what I do, but it's a one-way conversation. The tasting room means I get to see you, hear your questions, answer them in real time, and watch you discover a wine you've never tried before. That's the whole point.

Membership will include the curated tasting kits, access to our live virtual sessions, and other perks and resources I'm building in to help you develop your palate, get out of your comfort zone, and explore wine regions you might never have tried on your own.

And this is where I need you. I'm literally pulling this together right now, in May 2026. Before I finalize everything and put it out into the world, I want to know: what do you want from this membership? What wines, what regions, what format, what perks would make you actually excited to join?

Email me: nikki@sipwithnikki.com. I'm all ears.

If you're not already on my mailing list, go to sipwithnikki.com and sign up — that's where all the details about the membership, pricing, and launch will go out first. You'll also get my downloadable wine tips cheat sheet as a welcome gift (it includes tips like everything I covered today on temperature).

Before You Go: A Few Sips of Summer from Sollevato

If you're looking for wine to kick off the season, I have just a couple of cases left of my first-ever Sollevato rosé — a Grenache with a kiss of Sangiovese. It's dry but fruity, light, crisp, and honestly tastes like a summer sunset in a glass. People are loving it.

I also have my 2023 Sangiovese (perfect for pizza night) and the red Grenache, which is gorgeous slightly chilled and pairs beautifully with spicy food like tacos.

Visit sollevatowines.com and use code PODLISTENER for 10% off. We ship to most states.